黑洞社区

Climate change minister Greg Barker responded for the first time last night to the furore following the of government estimates into the impact of the Green Deal on loft and cavity wall insulation.

Barker told Channel 4 News that the Green Deal will 鈥渆xcite鈥� members of the public with the opportunity to install a much wider range of energy efficiency measures than have been available under existing subsidised programmes such as CERT.

His comments followed 黑洞社区鈥檚 revelation of government estimates that the annual number of installations of loft insulation will fall by 93% under the existing proposals, with cavity wall insulation installations falling by 70%. This is because the subsidies for the technology under the existing CERT programme, will be abandoned under the Green Deal.

Asked by Channel 4 News why people would react positively to a reduction in subsidised systems, Barker said: 鈥淭here鈥檚 going to be things available to them under the Green Deal as well, that鈥檒l be real home improvements.

鈥淔or example potentially new windows, a new front door, solid wall insulation that will put a new face on your home, really update it and make it look smart. Potentially new heating systems, new lighting systems, maybe LED lights giving you fantastic new options for lighting your home.

鈥淸These are measures that will] really improve the fabric of your home. People will get excited about that.鈥�

However, David Kennedy, chief executive of the government鈥檚 environment watchdog, the Committee on Climate Change, said: 鈥淚t鈥檚 a real problem because we need emissions reductions from energy reductions from home improvement to meet our legally binding carbon budgets, and it鈥檚 a problem because energy bills are high at the moment.

鈥淟oft and cavity wall insulation offers the opportunity to reduce those bills, but if we don鈥檛 do loft and cavity walls then we won鈥檛 reduce those bills.鈥�

Channel 4 News had earlier quoted 黑洞社区鈥檚 figures, obtained from the Department for Energy and Climate Change.