Ministers are pushing the government to outline the specific targets they want to achieve through the Green Deal. In a new report - 'The Green Deal: watching brief', MPs on the Energy and Climate Committee say it is unacceptable that the government doesn't have a clear plan of success for one of its flagship policies.
The Chairman of the Energy and Climate Change Committee, Tim Yeo MP, said:
"Our role is to hold Government to account. But it’s impossible to do this if the Government itself cannot explain precisely what it is hoping to achieve through its policies.
It’s unacceptable that, three years into the life of this Parliament, Ministers are unable to explain what success would look like of one of the Coalition’s flagship policies.
At a time when gas and electricity bills are on the rise, improving the energy efficiency of our homes could not be more important. My Committee therefore hopes that the Green Deal will be a success. It is only right that such a high profile policy is subject to proper scrutiny so that corrective measures can be put in place quickly if it is failing to deliver."
The Committee plans to monitor progress of the Green Deal over the coming years. The report sets out seven key areas in which it will focus its scrutiny: public awareness and communications; take-up levels; energy and carbon savings; financial savings and value for money; access to the Green Deal and ECO; customer satisfaction; and supply chain and job creation.
The report identifies a number of potential challenges, which could lead to low take up of the Green Deal. For example, people in rented accommodation might have difficulty gaining consents from their landlords, households might find the “hassle” of building works too much to want to upgrade their property, or cheaper sources of finance might be available from other sources. The Committee says that if take up levels are low, it will be important to understand why this is, so that the policy can be improved.
