While this week’s announcement will be a good boost for the Green Deal over the next year or two, what is really needed are long term incentives to help the scheme

Vern Pitt

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This week’s announcement of further incentives for the flagging Green Deal is another victory for Building’s Green for Growth campaign. One of the key aims of our campaign, launched back in January 2013, was to get greater incentives for the Green Deal, to make sure it could deliver on its promise to the industry.

We weren’t alone: over 300 firms, organisations and individuals signed up to support the Green for Growth campaign and their collective voice has been heard.

But while this will be a good boost for the Green Deal over the next year or two, what is really needed are long term incentives to help the scheme have a long and prosperous future – for example, a reform of stamp duty to make it at least partly related to a property’s energy performance. The UK Green Building council did some work to put together a model for this last summer.

The government could also boost the sector by making changes to the building regulations – a version of which were dropped in 2012 – that would force homeowners to upgrade their buildings’ energy performance when carrying out substantial renovations. Green for Growth also called for this.

The government has taken a bold step to bolster its flagship energy efficiency scheme this week. The industry has laid the next stepping stone for improving the Green Deal - the government just needs to be brave enough to use it.

Vern Pitt, senior reporter

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