The Green Deal provides a great deal opportunity for housing associations to retrofit their properties making them more energy efficient. Once Green Deal finance is in place which the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) is certain will be on 28th January, energy efficient improvements to properties can be made of up to £10,000 with no upfront costs. A small surcharge is added to the tenant’s electricity bill paid back to the Green Deal over an agreed period. The main rule of the scheme is that is that any surcharge on the energy bill must be less or equal to the expected savings from the installed energy saving measures over the specified time. Each Green Deal will remain with the property so if a person moves the new tenant will take over the repayments.
The Energy Company Obligation (ECO)replaces the old Carbon Emissions Reduction Target (CERT) and Community Energy Savings Programme (CESP)and provides funding for those that are fuel poor. It will also help fund more expensive measures that don’t fall within the main rule such as external wall insulation (EWI) systems and hard to treat cavity wall insulation. EWI is set to be one of the main beneficiaries of ECO funding as improving building fabric is the obvious way of reducing a buildings energy consumption.
ECO will be delivered by the larger energy companies and is expected to run to about £1.3bn a year. Over the next 5 years external wall installations are set to increase by an estimated 75,000 in 2012 to over 200,000 in 2017.
Because of this rise and the likelihood of cowboys wanting to make quick money, a number of precautions should be stated by housing associations when advising their tenants:
– Make sure any company claiming to be Green Deal Approved are fully registered and approved by the Green Deal Registration and Oversight Body (GD ORB). Website: www.greendealorb.co.uk
– Anybody that has an association with the Green Deal be it installer or provider should display the Green Deal Quality Mark with their unique Green Deal number underneath it.
– Always check that a Green Deal installer is approved for the work that they are carrying out. Not everybody is qualified for all measures under the Green Deal. The GD ORB website lists which measures a company is approved for.
Any rental properties found to have an Energy Performance Rating of F or G rated after 2018 will be deemed unfit to let under the new legislation so Green Deal finance will allow tenants to pay back installed energy saving measures in their bills whilst simultaneously saving money.
Syntegra Consulting’s experienced team has the skills and the resources to develop a bespoke Energy Management System for our clients. Syntegra can also identify and design engineered solutions that will improve energy efficiency and reduce costs. For more information on Syntegra Consulting Environmental Consultancy Services, please go to https://syntegragroup.com/services-we-offer/environmental-consultancy-services/
