Green Deal and assessors.

"The enormity of the challenge soon became apparent and the first meeting was barely able to scratch the surface of the task. The Green Deal is proposing that all households should be eligible for an energy assessment that will provide them with guidance on the investment choices that they can make and also give them behaviour change advice.

This will be the first point of contact that households will have with the Green Deal and the assessments will need to have integrity, independence, consistency and be of a high quality. Working out the funding model to achieve this, finding people with the skills able to deliver the assessments and ensuring there is a good level of quality control is a major task for policy-makers.

As we go through the process similar changes will appear at all other stages of the delivery model. What is highly encouraging is the level of Ministerial ambition behind the programme and the openness of DECC officials to external ideas and advice"

I have pinched the above from: http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/comment/2272705/developing-green-deal as I thought it was very thought provoking and made some very valid points.

As a Domestic Energy Assessor the bit that grabs me is the first point of contact that householders will have - who will it be? It goes on to say that there it needs to find people with the skills able to deliver the assessments and ensure that there is good quality control - to my mind it is obvious, the assessors should ONLY be DEAs - they are already over 50% trained, are CRB checked and are used to being professional within clients houses, it makes complete sense to use DEAs for this role!

As a home owner I am obviously worried about potential financial implications but it has been stated that the Green Deal will provide grants/links with energy companies to fund the work to make the UK more energy efficent.

Only time will tell!

Rewards for buyers and Sellers for energy efficient properties!

The government is looking at how stamp duty could be used to reward buyers and sellers for making a property more energy efficient – particularly if it falls in the lower F or G bands on an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC). That covers 20% of the British housing stock – just under 5.5 million homes.

The proposal would add 0.5% extra levy on normal stamp duty rates for those homes. So that’s clearly the tax side. But if the property was improved to at least an E rating on an EPC, the homeowner would receive a refund of the 0.5% – plus a rebate of another 0.5%. That money would be paid through savings in your energy bill. So that’s the incentive! Energy efficiency is one of the cheapest and easiest ways of cutting carbon. But the government has to help homeowners see all the benefits. Stamp duty reform is one of the best tools it can use.

The Government has extended the Green Deal to the rental sector - tweaking flagship scheme so landlords cannot refuse "reasonable requests" for energy efficiency improvements, but commercial properties still in limbo at present. The government has confirmed it is to extend the Green Deal to cover rented properties, although it is still unsure if commercial properties will be included in its plan to upgrade the energy efficiency of Britain's buildings.

Under the scheme, home improvements are paid for by energy companies or other commercial firms which then recoup the cost through charges on energy bills. Repayments are set at a level lower than the savings achieved through the energy efficiency improvements, ensuring that households and businesses taking part in the scheme end up better off.

Today, the Department of Energy and Climate Change (Decc) said that from 2015, landlords will be unable to refuse any "reasonable requests" by tenants for energy efficiency measures such as loft or cavity wall insulation to be installed.

Under new powers, councils may also be able to insist that landlords improve the worst-performing homes.

 I am hopeful that given the above we might finally be seeing the value of a professional Domestic Energy Assessor who produces accurate and efficent EPCs going up!