What is New with Green Deal
Find Out What Green Deal Has to Offer
Since proper insulation is extremely important but can be somewhat expensive to purchase and install, governments all over the world are trying to offer certain subsidies in order of raising awareness on importance of insulation on one hand and helping households invest more in their insulation plan. One such scheme that offers significant financial support is the UK Government Green Deal, developed during the 2013 in order of providing assessment, certification and installation of different measures that were designed to improve the overall energy efficiency of households across the UK.
The basic idea was to affect the overall energy efficiency and thus environmental protection by upgrading individual households by however keeping it affordable in reference to the material and installation costs. The Green Deal scheme involves a few steps that were supposed to envelop all the stages that are normally required for a satisfactory result. Firstly, certified Advisors and Providers take part in the process, by assessing the state of your household that is determining which of the available measures will most adequate and then by installing and implementing the chosen measures. Probably the most important thing is the ability to repay the costs of the materials and labour in the months and years to come, through electricity bills. As a result, you can get a freshly insulated home that you do not have to pay right away. However, a potential drawback of the entire concept was the fact that all the improvements installed are connected to the household, meaning that if you decide to move or sell you property, you would have to leave all the improvements behind, which is especially important if you are only a tenant. On the other hand, landlords can even benefit from this since it will additionally raise the house resale value. Well, if this got you intrigued, then you will be more than interested to know what is new with the Green Deal.
Green Deal Results
Although the Green Deal scheme was announced as one of the biggest home improvement program, it did not have the turnout initially expected. Namely, the numbers have shown that only 1% of the households that have been assessed actually applied for the scheme.
Probably the first reason for such low turnout is the fact that people were not assured that this will be beneficial for them i.e. that it will bring all the savings announced. On the other hand, the initial assessment costs were also high (between £100 and £150). This means that people had to pay the named amount just to determine whether they should apply for the scheme and which of the available improvement measures are most applicable. Also, the upper mentioned higher resale value only applies if the entire loan has already been repaid, since if this were not the case, the new owners will have to continue repaying the loan, which is something not a lot of people is willing to accept, especially bearing in mind that some loans take 10-25 years to repay. Another valuable fact is the bank loans interests have recently dropped to around 4,5 %, while the Green Deal loan interest is fixed to 7% for the entire repayment period.
Green Deal Novelties
All the above mentioned simply made the Government rethink the entire scheme and provide some additional incentives, in order of increasing the number of households applying for the scheme.
One important novelty is the Green Deal Home Improvement Fund (GDHIF), an innovative home improvement program launched on June 2014, with a budget of over £120.000.000. Probably the most important thing is that the householders can choose any of the 13 available energy efficiency measure, including glazing, heating systems and solid wall insulation and can get up to £7.600 back, if they opt for one of the core offers – solid wall insulation (up to £6.000 back) or any of the available two measures (up to £1.000 back). Additionally, all the householders whose households were subject to assessment can refund up to £100 for the assessment report and can claim a bonus of up to £500 if they have moved home in the period of 12 months preceding the application. Please note that all the mentioned refund possibilities to not exclude one another, meaning that you can apply for more than one if set terms are fulfilled.
Another important thing is the new Green Deal Cashback Scheme which is available for any householder that participated in the scheme. The novelties include the extension of the cashback application term (the application must be submitted until June 30 and vouchers redeemed until September 30); some cashback rates have been revised including solid wall insulation (now up to £4.000), double glazing (now up to £650) and “room in roof” insulation (now up to £1.000). However, bear in mind that you will have to apply for the cashback, before undertaking the work and can only get the cashback for the energy efficiency measures recommended in the Green Deal assessment and have age to engage a Cashback Scheme registered Provider.