UK: The UK's energy-efficiency scheme, the Green Deal, has been launched. The scheme gives homeowners and businesses the option of paying for energy efficiency improvements such as insulation and new heating systems through an unsecured loan that is added to their electricity bill. The scheme aims to cover the cost of the improvements by the reduction in consumers' energy bills.
"More and more families are being hit by the rising cost of fuel bills and the best way people can protect themselves from increased costs is to use less energy. This is where the Green Deal comes in, giving people a whole new way to pay for energy saving home improvements," said Energy and Climate Change Secretary Edward Davey.
The Green Deal includes 45 different types of improvements to help people warm up their homes and pay for some or all of the improvements over time through their electricity bill. According to government statistics 8m households in the UK could benefit from solid wall insulation and 4m households could benefit from cavity insulation. It is expected that 60,000 jobs will be supported in the insulation sector by 2015, an increase of 26,000 in 2011. Euro4.1m of funding is to be spent on training in 'key' Green Deal skills.
Among others the Green Deal has been criticised by the environmental group Friends of the Earth for containing 'significant' flaws such as the interest rate on the loans offered. However, the Friends of the Earth did support the scheme's Cashback Scheme that makes Euro146m available to householders without them having to make any borrowings.
