The institutions involved include British Gas and E.ON, retailer B&Q and the banks HSBC and Goldman Sachs, which aim to ensure low-cost finance is available to the 14m homes the government hopes will be refitted by 2020 under its green deal starting in October 2012.
The government’s green deal scheme aims to allow homeowners and businesses to access loans for loft lagging, cavity wall insulation and other efficiency measures. The rule of the scheme is that the savings on energy bills must be equal to or bigger than the cost of the work and loan repayments.
According to The Guardian, Greg Barker, energy minister, told the Conservative Party conference on Sunday that the green deal was the biggest home improvement scheme since the second world war. “From day one people will see their energy bills go down.”
Critics say the incentives are insufficient to drive take up and meet the target of 14m homes by 2020, given that smaller existing schemes have had relatively few subscribers even when free.
Reportedly, sticks and carrots to drive take up of the measures are being discussed by the government, such as reducing stamp duty or council tax for homes and offices that take up the deal, or raising taxes for those who do not.
The consortium members are: British Gas, Carillion, Clifford Chance, E.ON, EDF Energy, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, Insta Group, Kingfisher, Linklaters, Lloyds Bank Corporate Markets, Mark Group, npower, PwC, RBC Capital Markets and SSE.
