Home Owners Set to Benefit From Green Deal

In a bid to cut carbon emissions among UK households, the UK Government is launching The Green Deal in January 2013.

The aim of the Deal is to encourage households to improve energy efficiency in their home by offering them finance for the measures needed to update their home.

However, this finance is to be enacted according to a Golden Rule that repayments will be in line with energy savings from utility bills, so home owners don't end up paying more than they would have done before.

Britain's The Guardian newspaper recently reported that 21 million domestic dwellings in the UK are responsible for 27% of the UK's carbon emissions, illustrating exactly why The Green Deal is being introduced.

In advance of the deal's launch, the apparatus for it functioning effectively is already being put in places, including the authorising of Green Deal Assessors, Green Deal Providers and Green Deal Installers. Additionally, support has been sought from large companies and agreements about the operation from the main providers of energy in the UK.

The start point in taking advantage of the Green Deal for a UK home owner will be to have their home independently assessed. Deliberately, the assessment is separated from the people who will carry out the work to improve a home's energy efficiency. Once a home has been assessed, a Green Deal Finance Plan will be formulated with an authorised UK Green Deal Provider. They will be responsible for carrying out the home improvements themselves or outsourcing them to a third party, and will have signed up with the Government to abide by their Green Deal code of practice, and the Green Deal Arrangements Agreement, which is a contract with the UK's electricity suppliers to ensure correct payments, collections and reimbursements in line with the finance plan.

Given the Golden Rule of the work carried out on the home not being a greater cost then monetary savings on fuel bills, there will inevitably be a cap on the expenditure of work undertaken. The type of energy saving installations carried out will also vary in line with each home-owners assessments but include measures such as cavity wall insulation, loft insulation, installation of solar PV panels, solar thermal heating and air source heat pumps. All such installations have been proven to reduce energy bills giving a working yardstick of the level of savings made, enabling the proper construction of the finance plan.

Authorised Green Deal Providers are not only responsible for the finance plan and installation of energy saving products, but also the warranties for work carried out and liaising the details of the plan to future owners of any home taking part in the Green Deal initiative.

They will also be the first port of call for any consumer complaints about any aspects of the work carried out or finance plan.

Clearly, there is a huge onus on the authorised Green Deal providers to ensure the plan works effectively but the Government is confident that sufficient safeguards are in place to ensure accountability to consumers, energy companies and the Government.

The Green Deal represents a bold initiative to decisively tackle carbon emissions from UK homes, and now the remaining task facing the Government will be effectively marketing the Green Deal to ensure there is good take-up from British home owners.