What do you think of the Green Deal?

A question about : What do you think of the Green Deal?

What do you think of the Green Deal?

The Government-backed scheme to help households cover the upfront costs of energy-saving measures is now over a year old. MPs are looking at how successful (or unsuccessful) it's been.

Have you heard of it?
Have you tried to use it?
Does it work?
Tell them what you think via their online form on the Parliament.gov.uk website before Fri 28 Feb.

Then tell us your views here in the MSE Forum.

Click reply below to post your thoughts.

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Best answers:

• Hi
  I had a green deal assessment completed by NWS as on MSE but have now been advised by them that the funding has now been stopped. I have contacted several companies that have advised the same thing?
• My boyfriend tried for a green deal and he had nothing but problems. It all started in Feb last year when he first tried to get an assessment and was told by many companies that the funding was with a private company who was holding onto the funds so therefore were not even willing to risk booking in assessments or work.
  Several months down the line, he eventually had to pay Ј125 to a local company to come out and do the assessment. They came and did the assessment and it all seemed to revolve around tick boxes (I was never there for the assessment itself). They were fairly cagey from start to finish, not answering emails and when the assessment finally came out, they told him he wasnt eligible for funding. Why? Because they base the eligibility on the past year's energy usage. Now my boyfriend lives in a Victorian back to back, with many original features and some upgrading like double glazing and a relatively new heating system but still fairly energy inefficient. However he works away during the week so therefore the heating is never on during the week and he is one to put on a jumper first before switching on the heating. He said that he would be willing to put on the heating more often IF the house was more energy efficient, but of course, that didnt count!!
  So he has ended up paying for most of the work himself, upgrading of windows and doors, extra loft insulation etc. Probably not a lot for a back to back in the grand scheme of things but considering this whole process took nearly a year. I was fuming a lot on his behalf!
  It was a flawed scheme from start to finish: no free assessments for a time because despite announcing the scheme was a goer, no funds were released for several months (apparantly). And one big problem for me is that it is based on the past year's energy usage. What if you are frugal with your heating because you know of how inefficient your home is? What if you move into a property which has been empty for several months?
  It has left me very angry (on my boyfriend's behalf, as I dont live there!) because despite the good intentions of the project, I think it has been badly managed.
• I'm afraid don't have a PC available in order to write and attach a document as requested on the government website and have had to send this to a friend to submit - quite an antiquated system in 2014 surely?
  My views remain as they were when it was first launched - a big pile of horse dung.
  My experience with Green Deal was terrible. I had a survey done in March which confirmed we would greatly benefit from a new boiler among other things, which we were already planning to do and had the necessary funds waiting. I then spent at least one day every month phoning and emailing round companies, all of which said they would contact me when funding was available, none of which did. With a baby due in November and a failing boiler, we ended up purchasing a boiler and new radiators independently of the scheme in October, which was our entire savings - it would have been really handy to keep some for my maternity leave but needs must and we could not wait any longer!
  So in summary, the whole scheme was entirely useless to me and actually cost me money rather than saving it due to the amount of pointless chasing I had to do, and a year on from this initial survey I have still not heard anything from any of the dozen or so companies who I sent my survey to and who said they would call me back when funds came in.
• I contacted a company in March about a new boiler replacement as the current one is very old and does not work properly. Someone come round in April a took a photo of it, then did not hear anything until December. I took the morning off work so their man could do a full assessment of the house. In February I was told the installerers had lost there funding. My details have been passed on to another company so more waiting.
  So One year from starting the process I am no nearer to a new boiler. I am a single parent who works full time having this done would reduce my gas bill a lot, not to mention a house that is warm.
• My daughter has had a boiler replacement under this scheme. The assessment contained major errors -e.g. number of bedrooms wrong, - The boiler they fitted is too small to drive the system so is totally inefficient - apparently the gov't have withdrawn the funding for the bigger boiler. The company didn't bother to tell her this before it was fitted. The fitter was not very skilled - he forgot to put the inhibitor in the system, he left a gaping hole around the pipework etc. I am not one to bite the hand that feeds me but this is a frustrating mess. It may be free but it is worse than before. And why can't those in charge treat customers like intelligent human beings instead of as though they didn't exist. AND PLEASE - EMPLOY COMPETENT WORKERS.
• I had a cold caller yesterday,about solar panels,they would pay for them and get the feed in tariff and I would get the electricity and a guy would ring and come around at 4.30 pm I then got a telephone call from a completely different company saying the same thing amazing coincidence or a feeding frenzy before the rate comes down in MARCH,not sure I was willing to listen to the first lot but ended up stopping both ,I think the panels are a good idea but only if you are going to live in the house for some years,the cost is down to around Ј6000,and must be a good deal otherwise these companies would not put them in for free.
• Changing the subject - but only slightly - our local council which is St Helens Merseyside, came up with the 'wonderful' idea that we, the householder, should divide our waste into various containers which would be collected, and this gets confusing, some on a weekly - weakly - basis and some on a fortnightly basis. The whole idea had not been thought through before being implemented and it ended up that the council had to pay the collectors thousands of pounds more in overtime after we had done most of the job for them plus the fact we had unsightly bins etc outside the house sometimes for days at a time. Another of the councils, Knowsley, had to abolish the system because it wasn't working for various reasons, some of them were the biodegradable food bags were being used either for nappies or dog waste. Where do they get these 'clever boffins' from who sit at a desk coming up with these stupid ideas??????????
• I have to say that I've had a very positive experience of Green Deal.
  Last June I contacted a company via the green deal supplier website for solid wall insulation.
  After the compulsory EPC which cost Ј100 (but refunded after works) I went ahead with the insulation.
  Six months later and the insulation was completed, very happy with the work, it cost me less than half with the subsidy and I got Ј650 cashback.
  Admittedly I paid up front and didn't use the payment scheme via your energy bills as it seemed like a shambles, and as it wasn't interest free, I decided to fork out of my savings.
• I passed all the details that Martin's Money Tips provided regarding the Green Deal to our son and Daughter in law. They have a deaf little boy and it seemed they would certainly meet all the criteria. Despite busy lives/working full time they made a considerable effort just to get someone to come and have a look and quote. They live in St Albans. They found no one prepared to come and the people at the end of the telephone behaved like cowboys and offered "cowboy" type deals. They were appalled and disillusioned by the whole process.
  In the end they paid a man a day rate of Ј150 plus materials to insulate their roof space and hope the old boiler will hold out under the British Gas guarantee system.
  The Green Deal appears to be a meal ticket for all the wrong people for all the wrong reasons. Avoid would be our advice.
• You can't sell a house with a 'Green Deal' liabilty for love nor money as the debt stays with the house rather than travelling with the person who took it out.
• I'm having a new boiler installed by British Gas as they're offering (via Green Deal) 5 years cover - the initial one year warranty then a further 4 years HomeCare. British Gas arranged for the Green Deal assessment at a charge of Ј129.00 and a chap came out last week and took many many many measurements and notes. I now have an energy rating certificate, which stays with the house should I move, but I've now got to phone the Green Deal Cashback scheme with my reference number and bank details.
  I'm not prepared to take out any of their finance, I just want the cashback! I assume that's why they want my bank details but I'll be ringing them in the morning to find out more.
  It would be simplest if Green Deal just knocked the price off the British Gas bill.
• I too paid to have an assessment done (Ј150) in May last year, and am also having difficulty in finding a provider who has Green Deal funding to carry out the recommended work
  This has been a serious waste of my time and money
• Our boiler was fitted by British Gas 3 weeks ago: Boiler, radiators and thermostats.
  We started the process in March 2013, so it has taken 10 months all in.
  As others have said, it was extremely difficult to get started. British Gas did the initial assessment (Ј125) and it took weeks (months?) to get the report.
  Then we tried calling all the local companies (the Energy Saving Trust had a list I think) to get quotes for the work we wanted to do. They all said funding wasn't available yet. After a few months, British Gas seemed to be the first to get funding, but ONLY for boilers.
  Lots of sales calls from local companies trying to sell solar panels with Green Deal, but nothing that sounded legit.
  We wanted to get external wall insulation and double glazing as well, but no-one could do these easily.
  It then took many many more British Gas appointments to:
  - check the energy report
  - discuss requirements
  - have an engineer come to do the final spec
  - have someone else enter the spec on the system (they did this wrong - all the wrong sized radiators were delivered)
  - appointment to apply for finance
  - many calls chasing the finance (again, took weeks)
  The wrong radiators were delivered, but the guys doing the installation were FANTASTIC. They sorted out getting the right radiators, and just did everything without needing to bother us. Absolutely brilliant - all done in 4 days (we were oil, so converting us to gas was no minor job!).
  Because of British Gas's promise of the price you are quoted is the price you pay, we actually had a lot more work done than included in the quote.
  Weirdly, the Green Deal says thermostatic radiator valves are included. However, British Gas wouldn't cover these under the Green Deal - we still don't know why.
  All in, we were quoted c.Ј8,000 for the work.
  We paid Ј2,600 at installation (the radiators and valves), and the rest (the boiler) is on Green Deal (c.Ј50 a month for 10 years).
  We feel we got a good deal. But it was A LOT of hard work to get there.
• I paid for my house and my mothers house to be assessed by green deal rewards, Ј300, and all they did was constantly cancel the appointments that we had made, after the 5th cancellation I asked for my money back so they sent me a cheque made out in the wrong name and didn't even sign it, now they will not answer my calls or emails!
• Green Deal is a complete misnomer. This has nothing to do with the environment and everything to do with drumming up business for our ailing economy. Same old story from the politicians I'm afraid.
  We paid for an assessment which resulted in recommendations that were either obvious or unworkable. We live in a Victorian house in a conservation area, meaning many of the modern methods to save energy are difficult to retrofit the property.
  We would get funding for wall insulation. Unfortunately, the building is made of a single-skin of bricks so there is no potential for wall insulation unless an extra skin of bricks is added to the property which would either be expensive or reduce the internal floorspace of the property. Probably both.
  We would like double-glazed windows but it seems there would only be part-funding for this. We are likely to get more funding for the windows if we spend money on a new boiler too. As the windows would have to be timber frames to comply with planning regulations, we are looking at a huge outlay for minimal returns - not that anyone is prepared to divulge a figure for how much of a contribution we would get.
  Perhaps the money spent on Green Deal might just be better spent on grants for people to offset some of the cost for introducing energy-efficiency/renewable energy to their properties. Such measures should be prioritised over new boilers which, after all, are still going to burn more hydrocarbons (the very thing we are trying to avoid).
  Green Deal? Green Wash more like.
• This is another poorly thought out government initiative offering poor value for money, unless you can get a grant. It appears to be rolled out with dodgy software and poorly trained assessors - remember HIPS?
  It is possible to calculate theoretical heat saving but as with driving, occupant behaviour could wildly affect the real world outcome and the predicted savings may not be forthcoming. Of course any insulation measures will produce some savings but the ROI (return on investment) calculation may just not stack up.
  Finally, Green Deal finance starting at 7%, or is it 8% as I heard, is such a rip-off when you can get a bank loan as low as 4.5%. No wonder people don't take up that offer!
• An older relative had a phone call from Green deal in May last year, and paid Ј149 for an assessment. Since then we have phoned on numerous occasions to complain about the amount of time it is taking to install her boiler. In November, a fitter from another company arrived and said they had been contracted to fit the boilers and he should be back in 2 weeks time. Of course this didn't happen and there were more delaying tactics. I phoned to ask for her money back and was told that we could only ask for that within 7 days of her applying (when we didn't know how long it would take). She has now been told that funding has been withdrawn and they are waiting for the government to decide what to do. Does anyone know if it is possible to complain to Trading Standards about this so that she can recover her money? She is worried because she was due to have a service on her boiler early this year, but cancelled it when she thought that her new boiler would be fitted soon.
• Having read all the literature about the Green Deal I applied to several companies to be assessed for double glazing,as I still lived in a house with single glazing which was cold and damp. I was informed that the deal did not cover double glazing as it was too expensive and the money was only available for cheaper insulation ie loft etc. I eventually took out a loan to get my house partially double glazed. Being retired I do not have a high income only a small pension.The cut off for free insulation seems ridiculous. It appears that some working people will qualify,but only retired people on pension credit receive free help.Having saved for a small private pension to supplement my state pension,I felt I was penalised. I have an income under ten thousand pounds a year to live on and cannot understand the boffins who calculate who should receive assistance and what their knowledge of surviving on a limited budget is. In my opinion Green Deal complete con and rubbish deal.The Government cannot seriously believe this is credible.
• I think the idea of paying for home improvements through the savings they make is a very good idea.
  The main barrier as I see it is the high interest rate and for companies wanting to offer finance through the Green Deal Finance Company they must go through a Ј10,000 on boarding process which is a big barrier for companies who want to offer the funding but can't justify spending that kind of money.
  The process is a fairy simple one:
• Get an Assessment
• Get a repayment plan
• get the work done/installed

But for some reason in practice this has proved very slow and difficult.