GGF continues to be disappointed with slow progress of the Green Deal

The GGF continues to be disappointed with slow progress of Green Deal and Energy Company Obligation (ECO) following this week’s release of the latest statistics which continue to show how the scheme is not working for the replacement window industry.

The latest Green Deal and ECO statistics, giving details on the Green Deal (GD) up to the end of December 2014 and the Energy Company Obligation (ECO) up to the end of November 2014, show a decrease in the number of Green Deal Assessments in December, which is being attributed to the Christmas Break.

The scheme still has not taken off as quickly as originally promised by former DECC Minister Greg Barker and has been marred with bad press recently surrounding reports that consumers have had to wait for promised cashback payments that fail to materialise. However, following on from the £100m that Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Davey secured from the Treasury, the Green Deal Home Improvement Fund (GDHIF) is said to be secure and the DECC continue to say that it is offering consumers access to energy efficiency measures and helping them to reduce their household energy bills.

The key points of note from the latest statistics include:

1. A provisional 1,255,000 measures were installed in around 1,021,000 properties through ECO, Cashback, Green Deal and the Green Deal Home Improvement Fund to the end of November 2014, up from 1,198,000 measures to the end of October. The large majority of installed measures (97%) were delivered through ECO.
2. GD Assessments – 445,804 were lodged up to the end of November 2014. The 23,368 GD Assessments in December was 29 per cent lower than the number in November (32,734).
3. Green Deal Plans – 8,348 households had Green Deal Plans in progress at the end of December 2014, up from 8,133 at the end of November 2014. Of these, 1,763 Plans were ‘new’ (quote accepted), another 1,864 were ‘pending’ (Plan signed) and 4,721 were ‘live’ (all measures installed).
4. Cashback vouchers – As the Cashback payment process closed at the end of October 2014 there will be no further redemptions under the standard Cashback process. At the end of the scheme, 14,743 vouchers had been paid following the installation of 15,696 measures. Overall, including additional measures installed through the Cashback exception process, around £15 million has been paid and the majority have been for boiler replacements.
5. ECO measures – provisional figures show that 1,217,667 measures had been installed to the end of November 2014, 54,880 installed in November, which was 10 per cent lower than the 60,934 installed in October. This continues the downward trend in measures installed each month since March 2014, although energy companies have also started delivering measures eligible under the ECO amendment order with around 150,000 additional installations reported between April and September.
6. Of all ECO measures installed to date, 38 per cent were for cavity wall insulation, 23 per cent were for boiler upgrades and 26 per cent were for loft insulation.

On windows specifically:

1. Only 17 window installations had taken place using Green Deal Finance up to November 2014.
2. 64 windows were installed with Cashback up to the end of November 2014 in England and Wales
3. The number of windows installed using ECO funding included:

• 999 via the Carbon Saving Target element of ECO
• 1408 via the Carbon Saving Community element of ECO
• 1 via the Affordable Warmth element of ECO
• These represent 0.2% of the measures installed via ECO funding

The statistics can be read in full here.

DECC has also published an updated Green Deal and ECO methodology note. The note summarises the methodology used to produce estimates of the various elements of the Domestic Green Deal (GD) and Energy Company Obligation (ECO).

The note can be read in full here.