Low demand for assessments ahead of next week鈥檚 launch

Insulation.jpg

Only five households have had a Green Deal assessment since they became available in October last year.

While the government鈥檚 flagship Green Deal scheme doesn鈥檛 formally launch until next Monday the legal framework came into place in October 2012 making it possible for consumers to receive Green Deal assessments ahead of the scheme鈥檚 launch.

However, only five have been completed and entered onto the government鈥檚 register of Green Deal assessments.

Shadow energy minister Luciana Berger said: 鈥淭his is yet another setback in what has so far been a chaotic launch period.

鈥淚t is very worrying that there appears to be so little interest in the Green Deal with just a week to go before the entire scheme goes live.鈥

But energy secretary Ed Davey defended the levels of assessment: 鈥淥f course they [the public] don鈥檛 know about it because we have not started to market it until Monday.鈥

Energy minister Greg Barker said the government had not expected there to be much activity ahead of the launch on January 28, saying it was a long-term scheme and it had not yet been directly marketed to consumers.