黑洞社区

Energy secretary Ed Davey has not ruled out changing elements of the Green Deal should the government鈥檚 flagship retrofit programme encounter problems.

Speaking at Ecobuild this week, Davey said the Green Deal was a huge opportunity for the industry and would create thousands of jobs, but warned that it was a long-term programme that was 鈥渘ot going to happen overnight鈥�.

However, Davey said the government was prepared to 鈥渢weak鈥� the Green Deal, if it encountered problems. 鈥淲e are not trying to pretend we have absolutely everything [on the Green Deal] right,鈥� he said.

Bolstering the Green Deal is a key part of 黑洞社区鈥檚 Green for Growth campaign.

Asked by 黑洞社区 if more should be done to lower the Green Deal interest rates, which have been set at around 7.8% - a figure critics have said is too high to attract take up - Davey said he would wait to see how the scheme performed.

But he added:  鈥淲hat I鈥檓 doing is giving a commitment that we will look at things if there are problems. And we want to work in partnership with industry. If there is anyone who is involved in the Green Deal and there are issues you are picking up on share them with us.鈥�

鈥淪o far so good but let鈥檚 see if we need to tweak later in the programme.鈥�

Davey said the government would publish the first official statistics on take-up of the Green Deal in the spring, with subsequent monthly and quarterly reports.

He added that the Green Deal would prove over the long-term to be 鈥渁 huge boost鈥� to the industry. 鈥淎s the market takes off 鈥� so will these opportunities gradually take off. Not just in the UK 鈥� but there is an export market in energy efficiency too. I want you to be ready to take advantage,鈥� he said.

Richard McCarthy, Capita Symonds executive director, said the government should consider using cash from the Funding for Lending scheme to try and lower the interest rate for Green Deal loans.

The Funding for Lending scheme came under fire this week after it emerged that lending from banks had fallen 拢2.4bn in the fourth quarter of 2012.

McCarthy said: 鈥淲hat about the balance of the Funding for Lending scheme? Could that balance of lending be the Green Deal finance and help bring down some of the cost of finance.

鈥淚f it could, the incentive [for the Green Deal] would increase and more people would enter the scheme.鈥�