Government needs “long-term vision” for warm homes

The UK Green Building Council has responded to a report by the National Audit Office on the Green Deal and ECO.

The report finds that the Green Deal failed to encourage sufficient energy efficiency improvements and did not provide cost efficiency.

Richard Twinn, Policy Advisor at the UK Green Building Council said:

“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.”