Green Deal politics.. Synergy At Work

Green Deal Latest..

I’m itching to get started as chief executive of the National Landlords Association.

NLA members are committed to providing good quality housing so our policy stance must reflect a clear, strategic sense of the role of the private rented sector as an integral part of the UK’s housing mix.

Given the ever diminishing ability of councils to provide accommodation and the barriers stopping many from joining the so-called ‘homeowning democracy’, I expect housing need to emerge as a major political issue.

Housing providers of all types must prepare for when that day comes, building on the synergies between tenures, rather than reducing it to a discussion of the merits of social housing versus owner-occupation.

Private rented accommodation should not be treated as something entirely separate. In helping to shape the green deal retrofit programme and support the accompanying regulatory requirement for energy efficiency in the private rented sector, the NLA is showing what can be achieved if there is a true understanding in government of the impact of change and its consequences across all tenures.

 In a climate of cuts and reform, we jointly need to tackle the false assumptions and flawed analysis that underpin the changes to local housing allowance, or the misuse of Article 4 directions - used by councils to deny planning permission - which will restrict shared housing. Where is the benefit in setting private landlords apart at a time when we should all be seeking solutions to the housing crisis?

The private rented sector is not a housing problem; it’s a vital part of the solution

Source: Insidehousing.co.uk

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EPCs too hot to handle for landlords

More than a third (35%) of UK landlords are unaware of the energy performance of their properties, according to the latest research from the Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA).

More than one in six landlords (17%) believed that their properties fell into the minimum category of energy efficient performance, the F & G Band of the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC).

From 2018 under the Government's Green Deal, the rental of properties performing to this level will be banned through the minimum efficiency standard.

ARLA believes that with the large influx of consumers using the PRS as an alternative to buying, landlords need assistance from the Government to achieve minimum standards.

Along with other bodies ARLA has called for the scope and value of the Landlords Energy Savings Allowance (Lesa) should be extended

Ian Potter, operations manager of ARLA, said: "The clock is ticking for the PRS to improve its environmental performance but the investment just isn't there to ensure that this change takes place in the Government's timeframe.

"ARLA has campaigned for the Government to incentivise - through tax relief - the improvement of rental properties.  Otherwise it is going to be exceedingly difficult for the majority of landlords to find the funds to improve stock."

While Green Deal will offer landlords access to funds many continue to have concerns over tenants reactions to finding that they have an extra payment to make along with their energy consumption.

"The issues of fuel poverty among too many of the UK's households has been raised again as we approach winter," explained Mr Potter. "We urge the Government to ensure that the Green Deal is an effective solution to the crisis we will face unless the energy efficiency standards in the PRS and the UK housing stock in general can be improved."

The survey of more than 1,500 landlords in June 2011 showed that the number of properties in the F & G band remained consistent with the previous quarter.

Source: easier.com






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Energy saving Green Deal scheme comes closer..

The government has revealed more details of its Green Deal scheme to help people pay for home insulation and other energy saving measures.

How will it work?

The firms who eventually market the Green Deal will employ assessors to estimate just how much a householder can save through various insulation or heating measures.

These may include loft insulation, condensing boilers, draught proofing, solar panels and double glazing.

Once the work is assessed and agreed, the installation work will be contracted out to accredited installers.

Then the homeowners will have to start paying.

A key feature is that homeowners must be able to save more on their energy bills than they pay back.

What is the attraction for the big firms that the government hopes will market the scheme?

"Companies will see it as a marketing opportunity to sell other things," said a spokeswoman for the Department of Energy and Climate Change.

Anne Robinson, of the price comparison website Uswitch, said: "People who have the Green Deal will be paying a lot less for their energy after a year or two."

But Richard Lloyd, of the consumers' association Which?, warned against the dangers of shoddy workmanship.

"Our latest research into cavity wall insulation uncovered inadequate inspections and poor advice," he said.

"For this scheme to be a success, Green Deal assessors need to be held to the highest standards."

Source: bbc.co.uk

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Climate change policies 'held back' from optimising Green Deal

The Government is making only moderate or no progress on most of its commitments to cut carbon emissions, an influential coalition of environmental groups has said.

Efforts to tackle climate change are being held back by attempts by the Treasury and Business Department to curb ambition, according to a new study by think-tank Green Alliance in conjunction with WWF, Christian Aid, Greenpeace and RSPB.

The study, based on five months' research and discussions with more than 40 Whitehall officials and ministers, analysed 29 low-carbon commitments set out by the coalition in its programme for government last May.

It found that seven commitments had seen good progress, including the pledge to cancel a third runway at Heathrow, pushing for Europe to move towards a tougher 30% emissions target by 2020 and reducing central government carbon emissions by 10% in 12 months.

But on another six policies, the coalition is failing to deliver on its commitments.

The Government is failing to create green financial products which would allow individuals to invest in the low-carbon economy, the tax burden is not being shifted towards pollution, and ministers have not mandated a charging network for electric and hybrid cars.

The remaining 16 policies have seen only moderate progress, either due to delay or poor policy design - or both.

Matthew Spencer, director of Green Alliance, said: "The Government has taken some good decisions in tough economic circumstances, but it is hobbled by a lack of cross-government support for the coalition programme. It will miss more opportunities to get economic and political benefit from its policies without more public leadership from the Prime Minister and greater accountability across Whitehall."

A Department of Energy and Climate Change spokesman said: "The Government stands by its record on green policies over the last year to deliver the low carbon economy, with progress on a whole host of areas and a lot more on the way: We are determined to make the UK the destination of choice for global low carbon investment."

He said achievements included a White Paper on energy market reform to boost investment for low carbon electricity generation and a road map on renewable energy, while legislation is going through Parliament to introduce the green deal.

Source: Chesterchronicle.com

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Green deal becomes a better deal for consumers..

..Home assessments will be impartial

An amendment tabled on the government's Energy Bill today will, if passed, mean that Green Deal home assessments must be done by independent assessors.

Which? has been calling for this since the Green Deal was first discussed. It is crucial that assessments are impartial if consumers are to be confident that they are being sold the right energy efficiency measures.

Josh Green, advocacy officer at Which?, said: 'It's great that there is now a stated requirement for energy assessors to be impartial.'


 Which? is working with the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) to make sure that the spirit of this amendment is carried through to the Green Deal codes of practice.
What is the Green Deal?

The Green Deal is a scheme being drawn up by DECC that will allow consumers to take out long-term finance to pay for home energy efficiency measures.

Consumers interested in these measures can have an energy expert visit and assess their home and make recommendations for improvements.

The amendment to the Energy Bill makes it clear that these assessors should be impartial, so that they are not prejudiced to recommend certain products over others.
The Green Deal in practice

There is still a way to go to make sure that the Green Deal offers a great deal for consumers. Anyone taking on the Green Deal will be signing up to a complex financial product, and Which? wants to make sure they're getting all the right information.

We'd also like reassurance that the government has considered how consumer problems can be solved if, and when, things go wrong.

Josh Green, said: 'We'd now like to see even more robust protections for consumers including an ombudsman with the power to take action against rogue companies and provisions to get redress for consumers if something goes wrong.'

Source: which.co.uk

To find out more regarding The Green Deal see our site click www.green-deal.uk.com

Landlords ready to embrace Green Deal

Going green makes sense for all property owners, including those with landlord insurance

Being more energy efficient not only helps limit the extent of global warming but also saves money.

And with energy costs currently rising at an alarming rate, this makes absolute sense.
So it will come as little surprise to discover that two out of three landlords would look to make the most of the Government’s Green Deal when it is introduced.



This is the headline figure from a survey by the National Landlords Association.

The Deal, set to come into force by next year, will help out people who want to make their properties more efficient by offering them loans to do so.

These loans are then repaid through a levy on their energy bills.

The advantage for landlords taking part in the initiative is that it will help tenants to reduce their energy bills and, possibly, increase the value of their property.

Of course, just how many landlords will take part in the scheme when it eventually gets under way remains to be seen.

Much of it is likely to depend on the actual costs of the work that is to be undertaken.

Saving energy apart, there are, of course, many ways in which landlords can save money.

Looking for the best deal on cheap landlords insurance is one way in which to achieve this.

 Source discountlandlord.co.uk




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Government spent £17 million testing cutting-edge Green Scheme Tech

You could retrofit a lot of houses with £17 million of taxpayers’ cash. But that was never the intention of the government’s retrofit for the future programme - it was all about innovation. Hence the majority of this substantial sum was split between just 86 projects led by social landlords. Each was allocated £150,000 and a monitoring programme, not only to test cutting-edge Green Scheme technology in a variety of property types, but also to identify the obstacles standing in the way of its widespread adoption.
 
But, nearly 18 months after the experiment was announced, and a year away from the start of the government’s flagship retrofit programme, the Green Deal, the housing sector has yet to learn some of the valuable lessons the programme has to contribute towards the UK’s ambition to cut carbon emissions by 80 per cent by 2050.

Sustainable Housing receives frequent press releases publicising the latest ‘innovative, exemplar retrofit scheme set to achieve 80 per cent carbon cuts using cutting-edge technology’. Great. But given a £150,000 spend and, in some cases, more than a year’s work, this is surely expected? And social landlords leading the retrofit revolution don’t need this gloss - they need to know where projects went awry and what best practice can be shared from these experiences so they are better placed to retrofit at scale.

This will happen eventually, but many retrofit for the future schemes have only just been completed and monitoring by the Energy Savings Trust has either not yet begun or it is too soon to see any meaningful results. In fact, this is set to continue into 2013 with the first results emerging next year, ahead of the launch of the government’s Green Deal, which funds energy efficiency measures through the reduction of future fuel bills.

We decided to speak to the architects behind the retrofits to bring some early onsite lessons to the fore. So, what are the major challenges and how can they be overcome? Here, we identify five key areas.

Source: insidehousing.co.uk

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Green Deal Fit for the future

The Autumn issue of Sustainable Housing went to press last night. It is set to be a cracker, overflowing with essential reading for anyone with an interest in all things sustainable: exclusive news on what the Energy Company Obligation will look like, an interview with the outspoken Jonathon Porritt, early lessons from the Technology Strategy Board’s Retrofit for the Future programme, a look at the eco-credentials of prefab development, and how to get tenants on board the green deal.

My production editor was flitting through and remarked: ‘the green deal has had a bit of a rough ride in this issue’. In retrospect, I suppose it has. The green deal is the common theme in nearly all the articles because it is one of the most important policy areas in housing. As a result, we have given it something of a constructive grilling. And right now, there are some major hurdles emerging to overcome.

FutureFit
The most interesting recent example of this were flagged up in Affinity Sutton’s£1.2 million FutureFit retrofit pilot results which Inside Housing exclusively revealed on Friday. The implications of these findings for the social housing sector are huge. Effectively the report shows that for social housing the green deal will fail to meet its target of reducing carbon emissions by 80 per cent by 2050.

The report identified a 26 per cent ‘carbon black hole’ in the green deal. It also flagged up a massive funding gap of around £3,000 per home between the net cost of the works and the value of the energy savings. This means that just under half of the savings in social homes will need to be subsidised and plugged by Energy Company Obligation funding – and if the green deal ‘low package’ of £6,500 was rolled out across Affinity Sutton’s 56,000 homes, would equate to a minimum funding gap of £130 million for the housing association. Ouch.

Another major problem – one that is perhaps more worrying for the government and would be green deal providers in the private sector – is the very low initial take-up rate. Just 4.8 per cent of the 800 residents approached showed initial interest. This is even worse than the findings of the Pay As You Save pilot carried out by BioRegional, B&Q and Sutton Council which saw 126 homes receive a home energy audit – yet only 67 eventually went ahead with the measures. If social landlords struggle to give away free energy efficiency works to tenants then the private sector is in for a rude awakening when it tries the same thing.

The findings from both schemes show that the government’s market-led assumption that residents will take up the green deal on the rational of potential bills savings alone may be somewhat flawed as residents appear to motivated as much by the prospect of increased warmth as they are financial benefits. That said, with massive bill hikes anticipated from energy companies, this may well change over time.

for further information please see the following link http://www.insidehousing.co.uk/ihstory.aspx?storycode=6517623

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