MSE News: Government pulls plug on Green Deal funding

Former_MSE_Paloma

The Government's axing funds to the Green Deal Finance Company which helps to make homes energy-efficient...

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Government pulls plug on Green Deal funding




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zeupater

Hi

Not really surprising considering some of the horrendous stories involving the GD prices that we've seen on these boards.

Did anyone really think that a combination of charging for accreditation, thus limiting the number of installers and therefore competition, then allowing GDARs to be chargeable wouldn't encourage uncompetitive pricing under the scheme ? ... add to this the application of finance which is not only non-subsidised to the public but also heavily uncompetitive and then apply the 'loan' to the building, not the owner so that the responsibility for 'Green Deal' debt & repayment passes to potential buyers and assuming that it wouldn't play on the minds of potential buyers and sellers, therefore having a negative effect on the general perception of the scheme ? ... really ?, is anyone really that dumb ?

Silly scheme which was doomed to failure from the beginning .... here's an example post from a thread dated just over 2 years ago, not long after the scheme was launched ....

zeupater wrote: »

Hi Roger

If the average household uses ~16500kWh per year (source - http://www.ofgem.gov.uk/Media/FactSheets/Documents1/domestic%20energy%20consump%20fig%20FS.pdf ), then raising the conversion efficiency of a 35year old boiler from a realistic ~60%(max) efficiency to somewhere around 90% would save in the region of 5000kWh(30%*16500) per year, which at say 4p/kWh seasonal average would represent annual average savings of around £200(5000*0.04).

Realistically, a boiler exchange should cost no more than £2000, even if there is a substantial amount of work to do (we replaced a substantial floor standing >30kWh boiler with a wall mounted A rated condensing unit a couple of years ago which included modified pipe runs, bypass circuit, brickwork etc. and paid far less than £2k !), therefore, the 'golden rule' should certainly repay over a 10year period as long as the scheme registered installers were not greedy and the scheme finance was low or even interest free ... this is exactly why the scheme is failing, it's not that people don't want to make improvements, it's the scheme design (who'd have thought it !), the expected scheme margins from consumers, coupled with unnecessarily high scheme finance rates .... a 'government supported' enhanced margin to all involved in the supply & finance chains then ...

In summary, both the 'Green Deal' and the 'golden rule' works, but the inherent greed of those tasked with managing the scheme has throttled the scheme .... another case of incompetent public sector employees being driven down a path by a competent private sector driven by vested interests .... the solution then is to sack (yes sack, not promote, move aside or make redundant) the obviously incompetent individuals involved, then tweak and re-launch the scheme based on an aggregated managed contract commercial basis, which includes the finance rates .... it's really astounding that no-one has considered the 'economies of scale' which would apply to a developer should also apply to individual improvements made under this scheme ...

HTH
Z

... my guess is that those responsible have either been promoted or moved aside to continue their careers of incompetence & responsibility without accountability under the usual public sector umbrella of 'gaining relevant experience from past mistakes'. Of course, as usual, the governmental (/senior civil servant) reaction is to scrap the wheel instead of simply fixing a couple of spokes ....

HTH
Z

hamsterfan1

I expect the cold calling to stop too

brewerdave

hamsterfan1 wrote: »

I expect the cold calling to stop too

...sincerely hope so -went away for a few days....came back to an ansaphone full of automated messages re this and solar panel initiatives:eek:

ado

I got quotes for EWI from two large local companies both of which were GD accredited with both giving similar prices. I also got a quote from another non GD company and they were £4k cheaper, which strangely enough was the amount of the GD grant on offer at the time so I felt that some companies were artificially inflating their prices to take into account the grant. The two big companies were quite incompetent when it came to arranging the quote and following up on it as if they were so busy they didn't really care about individual customers.

Pincher

I wish James Bond will get on the case.

Spectre is run by the arch villain Greenfinger, who manipulates the government into pouring money into green initiatives designed to en-rich his businesses through subsidies.

Subplot has them plotting to assassinate Obama. What good is a president that does not go to war? Halliburton needs more revenue. Bond saves Obama, gets clue from assassin, which leads to Greenfinger, etc.

DREKLY

Hmm, can't say i have ever noticed Bond posting on here, but I will have a quiet word with Moneypenny, to see what she knows..... :rotfl:

paulsplace80s

I like a lot of friends where under the impression that you had to be on some benefits to get the GD. IT WAS NOT MADE CLEAR THAT YOU COULD GET IT NO MATTER WHAT THAT IS ALSO WHY THE TAKE UP WAS LOW.

undercover_peon

I never understood quite who the green deal was meant to appeal to. It costs too much for those on low incomes to be tempted by it, and anyone with the funds or access to competitively priced credit wouldn't fancy the loan rate.

Also the golden rule was nothing of the sort. This was often reported as you won't pay more than you will save but the actual rule was you won't pay more than it is estimated[I[ you will save and that's not quite the same thing...

jan_altus

I signed up and got an assesser in, who told me nothing I didn't already know about my house, using an online tool I could access myself. They produced a report I could produce myself online, for free, and they charged me 50 quid for it.

Then they said I would be approached by contractors. None called, so I approached a couple of GD contractors directly myself. Two agreed to come round, with a view to doing work (internal and external wall insulation) but neither of them kept their appointments or even rang to apologise. If they were that useless, how shoddy might the workmanship be? Now it's too late, my 50 quid goes down the toilet and I still have a cold, uninsulated and draughty home.

I suggest the Chancellor - in the first instance - increase VAT on fuel and decrease VAT on energy efficiency materials. That should give people an incentive to save energy.

ely_ellis

DREKLY wrote: »

Hmm, can't say i have ever noticed Bond posting on here, but I will have a quiet word with Moneypenny, to see what she knows..... :rotfl:

Surely that is 'MoneySavingPenny' :rotfl: