The Green Deal Again
What we have to understand is, Governments look at the long term plan and I mean many years, they are happy to wait for things to come to fruition through assimilation, they know that over years they can force change in the the opinion of the newer generations, look at Corgi, ACS, notification of gas work etc, when this first came in there was up roar in the industry, but over the years with the new entrants joining the industry with these things already in place, they are just accepted and the more of the older installers who retire, the more easily manipulated the new entrants become, it will be the same with Green Deal, over the years people will be fooled into believing this is a good option, simply because they will see that they do not have to pay up front and that will be the winning factor, I personally have no faith in a surveyor going into a property and saying you need this, this and this done and that they can guarantee that the golden rule will be met, meaning that the repayments for the Green Deal work are at least equal to the amount of the repayment, for example, if you have work done that is costing you an additional £10 per month on your electricity bill for repayment of the Green Deal loan, you should be making at least a £10 per month saving on your energy costs, if not more, that is what the Golden Rule means, now I personally do not believe that you can accurately state the energy savings for a house with additional insulation, we can’t predict what the winters will be like, how cold, how long or short they run for, I can foresee lots of complaints from Green Deal users, who end up paying much more for their energy use, with the Green Deal Loan repayment on top, than they are making savings, I have never thought the Green Deal a good idea, basically it is just preying on people be dangling a carrot with the offer of no up front fee for the work, this is what the main sale focus will be.
The RHI was by far a better offer, it made the customer have to use their own money initially and they would get an annual payment for 20 years, which could or nearly could offset the original capital cost of the installation, this way the customer could clearly see what they were getting from day one, it would also mean that the customer had to be financially stable to pay out on the initial cost, whereas the Green Deal will affect the poor the most, who will end up paying more for their energy costs with the additional Green Deal Loan cost than they can afford, if the RHI had been started when it originally was meant to start, I believe that we would now be having a very good and flourishing renewable industry in the UK, but we have been constantly lied to about the start date and we have never actually been given a valid reason for the delay, we have just been told it will be delayed, but not why, unfortunately now, the RHI is been linked to the Green Deal, by forcing people to have a Green Deal assessment before they can have any RHI work done and at a cost for the assessment, that they did not actually ask for, want, or even possibly need, I see this as the Governments way of just tagging on to something that could be a success the RHI so that they can then say that the Green Deal is a success.
I see lots in the trade media with ministers telling us how great the Green Deal is doing and how much money they are pumping into the renewable industry, but in the real world, when I speak to installers, non of them are benefiting from the Green Deal, non of them have a good workload ahead of them and most of the MCS accredited installers are still reeling from the massive expense of joining the MCS scheme, but without the work that they expected to gain from it, to reward their financial and time investment in joining the scheme.
In my opinion the renewable industry and even the heating industry has been ruined by the Government getting involved, they should stay out of what they do not know.
Fully agree. If the energy companies are at risk of loosing out by these savings, then this scheme allows them to recoup the income in another way – through high interest rates for a decade or more! Our successive governments interfere, don't ask what the industry really needs, then set in place, burdensome, expensive, bureaucratic systems to monitor what is being installed where (not how well it is installed or how appropriate), then wonder why nobody is interested. Green Deal is a scam, nothing more. We currently advise our clients to get a bank loan – it's cheaper and they have full control over the specification, who does the work, when, how, what is fitted, how they pay back and where the debt is attached. Installers are now highly qualified, well insured and fully capable of specifying/installing these simple systems to a high standard. Why then do we need all this extra regulation in an industry area which is not particularly difficult or dangerous? Simple – to line the pockets of those making the rules.
Exactly, energy efficiency in my opinion will be a waste of time, Energy companies are private entities, they exist for profit and to satisfy their shareholders, with people cutting back on their energy use, does anyone really believe that energy companies will accept a loss in revenue, of course they won't, they will simply increase energy costs to compensate and use raw material costs and other excuses for been the reason for the rise, but when did we last hear of an energy supplier losing money
How many energy ministers have we had in the last 15 years… too many.
I met with a German renewable technology company's manager recently and he seemed to think the UK would turn anti nuclear after the horrific scenes from Japan, It was hard to explain to him how apathetic we are about our governments ability to form coherent energy policy for the long term health of the nation and the economy. In Germany the leadership were forced to change policy and look again at their nuclear policy.
The cold hard truth as that all the schemes i have ever seen here revolve around middle class graduates setting up a costly structure to cream off the easy money leaving the a bewildered workforce in their wake!
Lobby groups for big business and incompetant government and cosy relationships between big business and government will continue to make the situation worse as we trundle along towards 2020.
Exactly Peter, it seems to be the wrong people who cream off all the money and those with the skill and knowledge to actually produce energy efficient systems get very little and in fact it costs them to belong to these nonsense schemes