The Green Deal (2013-2015, 2017-): What is it?

The Green Deal is a former Government energy scheme that ran from 2013 to 2015. Since 2017, the scheme has been backed by private investors and is still promoted on the Government website. This scheme allows for people to apply for a loan for insulation measures, low-carbon/heating systems and draught-proofing.

The scheme was originally created from the Energy Act (2010) marketed under the Government as their first step in the Energy Company Obligation Scheme (ECO) and was meant to help “millions of homes and businesses”, as stated by Chris Huhne, the current Secretary of State of Energy and Climate Change at the time. 

The Government put in place a £5 Million funding budget, promised “500,000 new jobs” from the supply chain it’d create and enforced the build quality by creating the Green Mark. An accreditation that indicated if a company was an approved advisor, supplier or installer.

The loan could be paid back by adding a charge to the user’s energy bill over the period of 10-25 years. The plan was to have insulation, draught proofing or more efficient central heating installed which would save energy. The energy saved would result in a lower energy bill. A charge would then be applied to pay back the loan. In theory, resulting in an overall lower energy bill for the customer, less fuel waste and profit for the scheme.

The loan was paid back by whoever paid the energy bill for the property meaning that if the original person who had it installed moved out, the loan repayments would be passed to the next occupier. 

The Green Deal Finance Company (GDFC) was set up in 2012 which acted as the front for the scheme until it was sold off in 2017 to the Allium Lending Group. The GDFC now acts at a business-to-business level, providing the finance needed to Green Deal Approved Providers. A new logo for Green Deal providers was produced as seen below.

Results

2013-2015

Within months of the Green Deal beginning, it was considered a massive flop. Estimated to have had 10,000 new measures implemented within the first year, only 1,600 households signed up to the scheme. 

This 10,000 household target would be eventually by the project’s end in 2015 with another 5,600 plans still ongoing at the time. 

2017-

Since being re-introduced, the scheme has aided another 2,500 people within the last four years by getting new energy saving insulation, heating systems and draught proofing. 

Energy Grants UK is an approved Green Deal provider. We are able to possibly offer partially or even fully-funded (free) insulation/draught-proofing, first-time central heating or replacement storage heaters. Find out today if you qualify for free insulation measures by speaking to BOB or filling out a form.