Isra-Mart srl : Green Deal extended to rental sector

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Isra-Mart srl news:

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.

The forthcoming energy bill is set to iron out just what "reasonable" may mean and Decc told BusinessGreen.com that during the process of drafting that legislation, it would consider how to include commercially rented properties.

The idea of including businesses in the Green Deal was floated by energy and climate change secretary Chris Huhne earlier this year.

As many businesses rent premises, there seemed to be little incentive to install measures if they were unsure exactly how long they would be in situ, prompting calls to change the legislation.

And there was popular support for extending the scheme into the rental sector from environmental groups.

"The government is absolutely right to be including the private rented sector in its Green Deal energy efficiency plans," said Colin Butfield, head of campaigns at WWF-UK. " Without efforts to improve the millions of homes in the rented sector, the UK would be unable to reduce carbon emissions sufficiently."

Speaking at British Gas’s Energy Academy in Thatcham today, Huhne said that by 2015 up to 100,000 Green Deal workers could be employed in improving domestic and commercial energy efficiency.

Huhne hailed the Green Deal as "a massive economic and job opportunity which could help Britain’s economy turn the corner."

"With up to 100,000 green jobs up for grabs over the next five years, and even more in the long term, this is about growing our economy in a way that is good for jobs, the environment and energy security," he said.

Meanwhile, the government's other flagship scheme took a dip, as figures from Ownergy suggested that total capacity of installations registered for feed-in tariffs fell 30 per cent last month compared to the previous month.

The microgeneration advisory company said the drop was expected in part due to seasonality, and also because of investor confidence falling before the tariff rates were confirmed in the Treasury's spending review.

The government said last month it would not alter rates before the scheduled 2013 review, unless uptake proved higher than expected.

But according to the figure, there were far fewer wind and hydro schemes than in previous months, and while the number of commercial and industrial installations increased, the average system size fell from 100kW in September to just 10kW in October.

Pascal Barkats, director at Isra-Mart, said: "It is still too early to estimate what the average monthly installation rate will be, but it is increasingly clear that government fears about excessive uptake are currently unfounded."