The National Audit Office (NAO) has concluded that the Department of Energy and Climate Change’s (DECC) Green Deal has not achieved value for money.
The scheme, which cost taxpayers £240m, including grants to stimulate demand, has not generated additional energy savings. The NAO says that the DECC’s design and implementation is to blame, as it did not persuade householders that energy efficiency measures are worth paying for.
The NAO report on the Green Deal and Energy Company Obligation (ECO) also found that DECC’s design of its Energy Company Obligation scheme to support the Green Deal added to energy suppliers’ costs of meeting their obligations.
The report has found that while the Department achieved its target to improve 1m homes with the schemes, this is not a direct indicator of progress against the objective of reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions because different types of energy-efficiency measures save different amounts of CO2.
The UK Green Building Council has responded to the report blaming Government red tape and policy changes for the lack of success of the scheme, stating that “a lack of long-term incentives” deterred householders from engaging with it.
Richard Twinn, policy advisor at the UK Green Building Council, commented: “The Green Deal was a pioneering attempt to bring private finance into the home retrofit market, but poor management ultimately set it up to fail. High interest rates limited the amount that could be borrowed under the scheme, and a lack of long-term incentives meant there was insufficient demand from householders. This was compounded by constant policy changes, which made it very difficult for the industry to invest.
“However the Green Deal was never going to be a silver bullet for improving all the UK’s draughty homes. Rather than relying on piecemeal individual policies, the Government needs to set out a long-term vision for improving the housing stock, and then work with the industry to develop a suite of policies which provide a compelling offer to every household.”
