What do you think of the Green Deal?

Former_MSE_Wendy

[FONT=&quot]What do you think of the Green Deal?[/FONT]

The Government-backed scheme to help households cover the upfront costs of energy-saving measures is now over a year old. MPs are looking at how successful (or unsuccessful) it's been.

Have you heard of it?
Have you tried to use it?
Does it work?
Tell them what you think via their online form on the Parliament.gov.uk website before Fri 28 Feb.

Then tell us your views here in the MSE Forum.

Click reply below to post your thoughts.



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slaterio

Hi

I had a green deal assessment completed by NWS as on MSE but have now been advised by them that the funding has now been stopped. I have contacted several companies that have advised the same thing?

whizzybee

My boyfriend tried for a green deal and he had nothing but problems. It all started in Feb last year when he first tried to get an assessment and was told by many companies that the funding was with a private company who was holding onto the funds so therefore were not even willing to risk booking in assessments or work.

Several months down the line, he eventually had to pay £125 to a local company to come out and do the assessment. They came and did the assessment and it all seemed to revolve around tick boxes (I was never there for the assessment itself). They were fairly cagey from start to finish, not answering emails and when the assessment finally came out, they told him he wasnt eligible for funding. Why? Because they base the eligibility on the past year's energy usage. Now my boyfriend lives in a Victorian back to back, with many original features and some upgrading like double glazing and a relatively new heating system but still fairly energy inefficient. However he works away during the week so therefore the heating is never on during the week and he is one to put on a jumper first before switching on the heating. He said that he would be willing to put on the heating more often IF the house was more energy efficient, but of course, that didnt count!!

So he has ended up paying for most of the work himself, upgrading of windows and doors, extra loft insulation etc. Probably not a lot for a back to back in the grand scheme of things but considering this whole process took nearly a year. I was fuming a lot on his behalf!

It was a flawed scheme from start to finish: no free assessments for a time because despite announcing the scheme was a goer, no funds were released for several months (apparantly). And one big problem for me is that it is based on the past year's energy usage. What if you are frugal with your heating because you know of how inefficient your home is? What if you move into a property which has been empty for several months?

It has left me very angry (on my boyfriend's behalf, as I dont live there!) because despite the good intentions of the project, I think it has been badly managed.

superfran_uk

I'm afraid don't have a PC available in order to write and attach a document as requested on the government website and have had to send this to a friend to submit - quite an antiquated system in 2014 surely?

My views remain as they were when it was first launched - a big pile of horse dung.

My experience with Green Deal was terrible. I had a survey done in March which confirmed we would greatly benefit from a new boiler among other things, which we were already planning to do and had the necessary funds waiting. I then spent at least one day every month phoning and emailing round companies, all of which said they would contact me when funding was available, none of which did. With a baby due in November and a failing boiler, we ended up purchasing a boiler and new radiators independently of the scheme in October, which was our entire savings - it would have been really handy to keep some for my maternity leave but needs must and we could not wait any longer!

So in summary, the whole scheme was entirely useless to me and actually cost me money rather than saving it due to the amount of pointless chasing I had to do, and a year on from this initial survey I have still not heard anything from any of the dozen or so companies who I sent my survey to and who said they would call me back when funds came in.

red_shoes

I contacted a company in March about a new boiler replacement as the current one is very old and does not work properly. Someone come round in April a took a photo of it, then did not hear anything until December. I took the morning off work so their man could do a full assessment of the house. In February I was told the installerers had lost there funding. My details have been passed on to another company so more waiting.
So One year from starting the process I am no nearer to a new boiler. I am a single parent who works full time having this done would reduce my gas bill a lot, not to mention a house that is warm.

magicgranny

My daughter has had a boiler replacement under this scheme. The assessment contained major errors -e.g. number of bedrooms wrong, - The boiler they fitted is too small to drive the system so is totally inefficient - apparently the gov't have withdrawn the funding for the bigger boiler. The company didn't bother to tell her this before it was fitted. The fitter was not very skilled - he forgot to put the inhibitor in the system, he left a gaping hole around the pipework etc. I am not one to bite the hand that feeds me but this is a frustrating mess. It may be free but it is worse than before. And why can't those in charge treat customers like intelligent human beings instead of as though they didn't exist. AND PLEASE - EMPLOY COMPETENT WORKERS.

zipdip

I had a cold caller yesterday,about solar panels,they would pay for them and get the feed in tariff and I would get the electricity and a guy would ring and come around at 4.30 pm I then got a telephone call from a completely different company saying the same thing amazing coincidence or a feeding frenzy before the rate comes down in MARCH,not sure I was willing to listen to the first lot but ended up stopping both ,I think the panels are a good idea but only if you are going to live in the house for some years,the cost is down to around £6000,and must be a good deal otherwise these companies would not put them in for free.

alwayswrite

Changing the subject - but only slightly - our local council which is St Helens Merseyside, came up with the 'wonderful' idea that we, the householder, should divide our waste into various containers which would be collected, and this gets confusing, some on a weekly - weakly - basis and some on a fortnightly basis. The whole idea had not been thought through before being implemented and it ended up that the council had to pay the collectors thousands of pounds more in overtime after we had done most of the job for them plus the fact we had unsightly bins etc outside the house sometimes for days at a time. Another of the councils, Knowsley, had to abolish the system because it wasn't working for various reasons, some of them were the biodegradable food bags were being used either for nappies or dog waste. Where do they get these 'clever boffins' from who sit at a desk coming up with these stupid ideas??????????

colinm

I have to say that I've had a very positive experience of Green Deal.
Last June I contacted a company via the green deal supplier website for solid wall insulation.
After the compulsory EPC which cost £100 (but refunded after works) I went ahead with the insulation.
Six months later and the insulation was completed, very happy with the work, it cost me less than half with the subsidy and I got £650 cashback.
Admittedly I paid up front and didn't use the payment scheme via your energy bills as it seemed like a shambles, and as it wasn't interest free, I decided to fork out of my savings.

Trasimeno

I passed all the details that Martin's Money Tips provided regarding the Green Deal to our son and Daughter in law. They have a deaf little boy and it seemed they would certainly meet all the criteria. Despite busy lives/working full time they made a considerable effort just to get someone to come and have a look and quote. They live in St Albans. They found no one prepared to come and the people at the end of the telephone behaved like cowboys and offered "cowboy" type deals. They were appalled and disillusioned by the whole process.

In the end they paid a man a day rate of £150 plus materials to insulate their roof space and hope the old boiler will hold out under the British Gas guarantee system.

The Green Deal appears to be a meal ticket for all the wrong people for all the wrong reasons. Avoid would be our advice.

Teacher2

You can't sell a house with a 'Green Deal' liabilty for love nor money as the debt stays with the house rather than travelling with the person who took it out.