黑洞社区

Climate change minister Greg Barker was today heckled at an industry lunch as frustration over the government鈥檚 flagship Green Deal policy boiled over.

Barker was the main speaker at the Construction Products Association鈥檚 annual lunch at the Dorchester Hotel in central London and was booed when talking about the involvement of SMEs in the Green Deal, which is due to launch in October.

Having name-checked large firms including St Gobain, John Lewis and B&Q in his speech, Barker took questions from the floor and began discussing how small business would be part of the Green Deal.

He was booed by a section of the audience when he then mentioned builders鈥� merchant chain Travis Perkins.

鈥淭ravis Perkins are a fantastic business but they are the largest builders鈥� merchant in the UK,鈥� an audience member shouted out. 鈥淲hat about the smaller builders鈥� merchants?鈥�

Barker - whose speech followed a challenging introduction by CPA chairman Bill Bolsover who questioned him on whether the Green Deal would work - responded to the heckling by saying the government wanted SMEs to get involved.

鈥淎ll I would say is bring it on,鈥� he said. 鈥淭he onus is on the private sector to come forward.鈥�

The minister was then interrupted again as another audience member challenged Barker to say how 鈥渋ndependents鈥� would be involved in the Green Deal.

鈥淭here are huge opportunities but I will tell you who is going to decide [which firms are involved]: consumers,鈥� Barker said.

鈥淲e are going to make sure small businesses can compete on an even playing field鈥�but ultimately it is up to you guys to go out there and win the business.鈥�

In an increasingly rowdy atmosphere, Barker was also challenged on why construction firms would chose to invest in the Green Deal given its slashing of the feed-in-tariff (FIT) for solar installations.

One audience member told Barker that confidence in government energy initiatives had been 鈥渕assively undermined鈥� by the FIT saga.

In his initial speech, Barker had claimed that the Daily Mail - which led stories on the so-called 鈥榗onservatory tax鈥� and the subsequent scrapping of consequential improvements under the Green Deal - 鈥渃ould not have had it more wrong鈥�.

on claims by the Federation of Master Builders that the government鈥檚 failure to approve a competent person scheme to support the Green Deal could lock small and medium-sized builders out of the initiative鈥檚 launch phase.