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The Guardian - UK

Environment

Ami Sedghi

Green deal: how do the numbers break down?

It's been labelled a "damp squib" and progress has been described as "woefully inadequate", but how well is the government green deal scheme going?

The "revolutionary programme", in the words of Secretary of State of Energy and Climate Change, Chris Huhne was first launched by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (Decc) on the 28 January 2013 in England and Wales and on the 25th February in Scotland, to tackle "key barriers to the take-up of energy efficiency measures."

However, it hasn't been smooth sailing. Labour announced plans to abandon the flagship energy efficiency scheme if it wins the 2015 election. Damian Carrington wrote:

"It was meant to be the biggest home improvement programme since world war two and ministers said they would be having sleepless nights if 10,000 people had not signed up by Christmas 2013," said Caroline Flint, shadow energy secretary, noting that just 12 green deals had been completed. "They won't be getting much shut eye." The pledge to scrap the green deal follows Ed Miliband's dramatic promise to freeze energy bills and break up the big six energy companies that dominate the UK market.

Decc has been publishing monthly statistical releases since June. The publications show the popularity of the green deal scheme for the domestic sector through a range of measures including the number of GD assessments, the number of 'new', 'pending' and 'live' plans and the number of cashback vouchers. Here is a breakdown of these figures and what they mean:

The first step in the green deal process consists of an assessor coming to the home and completing an assessment titled the green deal advice report. The report, according to Decc, allows customers to 'view the energy efficiency measures which have been recommended and understand the potential costs and savings'. By the end of September 85,177 assessments had been lodged in total,
with the number of assessments recorded last month up 7% on August.

After the advice report has been provided to the household, customers can then make a choice. They may decide not to progress any further or to undertake some or all of the recommendations using a green deal plan to finance the cost or by using alternative funding.

Research published by Decc showed that 56% of households who had a green deal assessment bewtween 1 April and 30 June reported installing at least one recommended measure and a further 6% were already in the process of installing.

Only 57 green deal plans are 'live'

After an assessment has been carried out and the household decide that they do want to apply recommended measures and have received a quote, there are a few different options for payment; personal finance, Green Deal finance or funding through Energy Company Obligation (ECO) support. These can be used to cover part or all of the planned work (under the ECO scheme the big energy companies have to offer free cavity wall and/or loft insulation to certain homes).

The GD plans go through three stages:

• 'new' - the customer has received a quote from a green deal provider and has confirmed they wish to proceed. More than one plan can be requested for each household

• 'pending' - when the green deal plan has been signed by the customer, progress is being made to install the measures and finalisation is under way so charging can begin

• 'live' - measures have been installed, energy suppliers have the information required to bill green deal charges and details required to disclose the plan to future bill payers has been attached

By the end of September there were 392 households with a 'new' plan, 505 with 'pending' and 57 'live'.

Green deal cashback vouchers - a success?

The green deal cashback scheme has been available in England and Wales since the start of this year and is intended to reward the first green deal customers as a 'first- come, first served' offer. The Observer's Harriet Meyer explains the scheme:

You don't have to take out a green deal loan to qualify for this, although you will need to pay for an assessment. Under the deal you can get cashback of up to £1,000, limited to 50% of the money you've spent – for example, £150 for floor insulation and £270 for a boiler – on a first come, first served basis. This element of the scheme has proved a success.

The latest figures show that the government have now paid out 6,512 cashback vouchers up to the end of September with a total value of nearly£1.8m, virtually all of which covered the cost of boiler replacements. Decc said in total 9,087 cashback vouchers had been issued by the end of September with a budget of around £2.8m committed to it. Decc also state that "Just over a quarter of these issued vouchers will have not been paid yet as payment is dependent on the installation of the measures."

The Eco - what is it?

The Eco, Energy Companies Obligation, which began at the beginning of 2013 (although energy companies have been able to count against targets measures delivered since the 1 October 2012) runs until the 31 March 2015. The aim of the Eco is to provide energy efficiency measures to low income and vulnerable consumers and those that live in 'hard-to-treat' properties.

The Carbon Saving Obligation (CSO), Carbon Savings Communities (CSCO) and Affordable Warmth (HHCRO) are the three main Eco obligations. Decc claim that the CSO is estimated to be worth about £760m per year whilst the CSCO and HHCRO together will provide an estimated £540m worth of support per year to low-income households.

If you split the number of Eco measures recorded (these are provisional figures, subject to further checks by Ofgem) by obligation, the majority of Eco measures were through Affordable Warmth. The pie chart below shows the provisional number of measures installed under Eco by measure type.

The downloadable spreadsheet has all the newly released figures from Decc.