Applications for a new phase of the Green Deal Home Improvement Fund (GDHIF), following its early and unexpected closure three months ago, will open to households before the end of November.

More people will be able to enjoy warmer homes and more control of their energy bills as a result of an additional £100 million announced for household energy efficiency, announced Energy & Climate Change Secretary Ed Davey at the Liberal Democrat Party Conference in Glasgow on 7 October.

“More money means more people can live in warmer, greener homes sooner,” said Mr Davey. “GDHIF vouchers went like hot cakes earlier in the year and now even more people can cut their energy bills by making their homes more energy efficient.”

Energy

“Over three quarters of a million homes have already had energy saving improvements installed as a result of the Energy Company Obligation and Green Deal schemes and it makes sense to help even more families install measures so that they see the benefits of lower bills and a warmer home for years to come.”

Further details including terms and conditions, rates and all measures to be covered will be announced in November.

The UK Green Building Council has welcomed the plans to boost Green Deal, but warned that it is only a “temporary solution” to encouraging home energy efficiency.

John Alker, director of policy and communications at the UK Green Building Council

“There's no doubt that the Lib Dems understand the importance of home retrofit, and Ed Davey should be applauded for securing the cash from Treasury. But we need to move beyond stop-start incentives that damage business confidence.

“This funding could see us through to the General Election, but what happens after that? All parties must recognise that home energy efficiency is an infrastructure priority, with public investment needed to support the most vulnerable and to create the confidence for the private sector to scale up investment over the long term.”

The National Insulation Association (NIA) agreed that political parties must be urged to go much further and commit to making energy efficiency retrofit an infrastructure priority.

Neil Marshall, chief executive at the NIA

“However, while this will provide much needed short term relief, we need to go beyond short term, stop start schemes and incentives and put in place a long term plan and funding mechanism if we are to insulate the UK housing stock in a timely manner.”

Mr Marshall explained that with over 7million homes in the UK having inadequate loft insulation, over 5 million that require cavity wall insulation and almost 8 million homes that need solid wall insulation, government needs to significantly strengthen energy efficiency policies and programmes.

“To this end the NIA is calling on all political parties to recognise that home energy efficiency needs to be defined as a national infrastructure priority with public investment to support the most vulnerable households and to create the confidence for the industry to scale up investment over the long term.”

“No business likes a scheme that creates short-term demand, and so we will be waiting for details on what this money will be spent on and importantly how it will be administered.

“If the government is serious about energy efficiency it must recognise that it is about more than double glazing and insulation – heating is vital. There are still over 12 million inefficient boilers within UK homes, and often replacing a boiler is a great catalyst for homeowners to install other efficiency measures.”

The HHIC also said it would also want government to consider heating controls, which play a major role in helping to manage the heat generated within a property.

“They need to understand that the measures they include in any new scheme need to help home use less energy,” Mr Webb concluded.

The British Property Federation (BPF) has commended the government for recognising the need for additional funding following the popularity of phase one of the GDHIF scheme and the criticism the Green Deal received from the Energy & Climate Change Committee.

However the BPF also sounded a note of caution over the fact that once the fund has been exhausted, the scheme will no longer exist. It would like to see the government move towards more sustainable energy efficiency initiatives which will last for several years.

Ian Fletcher, director of policy at the BPF

“The BPF continues to recognise that a pay-as-you-save model is ultimately the most effective for delivering large scale improvements in a sustainable fashion and efforts should be made to build on the recommendations of the Energy & Climate Change Committee to make the Green Deal more attractive to consumers.”