A private, not public sector led approach is needed
Government wants councils to lead an improvement in the energy efficiency of homes.
However, with most consumers not bothered about climate change or adopting low carbon lifestyles, it is not realistic to think that the owners of 10 million hard to treat homes will rush out to take up the Green Deal in 2012 or that 50 million consumers will readily adopt low carbon lifestyles. Hard nosed business principles must prevail, not wishful thinking, if we are to achieve real change. A private sector led sales driven strategy is therefore absolutely key.
The Green Deal will only work if private sector companies can be mobilised to get involved. Apart from energy suppliers, retailers like M & S and Tesco know what is needed, but too few retailers are currently involved - and no banks. Things have to change and every business needs to play it's part. Government and councils cannot do everything. The public sector faces major spending cuts and job losses and councils and voluntary organisations do not have the sales and other commercial skills needed to persuade a critical mass of consumers to act.
Current installation rates are inadequate to meet Government's energy related targets. FACT. So, local councils and energy suppliers must secure the help of every single UK business, large and small to play it's part. In particular, banks, building societies, retailers, estate agents and conveyancers to persuade customers and employees to insulate their homes, install solar panels, adopt low carbon lifestyles and reduce waste.
Carrying on as we are is not good enough. A way forward that works must be found for the benefit of homeowners and tenants, their children, future generations and the environment.
Vision
We need a private, not public sector-led approach:
Green service providers - There are too few. We need many more.
Working with the support of councils and environmentalists, large retailers, banks and other consumer facing organisations must establish partnerships with energy suppliers to offer energy efficiency related services to their customers and employees, providing innovation, diversity and competition that stimulates growth in 'green' services and provides leadership for others to follow.
Highly skilled, sales staff must evangelise,
To raise awareness and gain consumer buy-in, advice and marketing must be provided by consumer-facing organisations and local authorities, not quangos. Key to delivery will be sales and marketing. Councils and local communities must pass on leads to their chosen private sector partners who have skilled workforces capable of assessing potential energy savings and then properly installing a wide range of efficiency measures and equipment.
A key element to success must be well managed communication and scheduling of works between field and telesales staff, home energy advisers, managing agents, installers and householders to ensure smooth and cost effective roll out. This will require significant project management and coordination skills.
Stakeholder interests and concerns must be accommodated. Closed minds, opened. Differences overcome. Compromise made. Common ground established. Joined up thinking, openness and transparency must prevail instead of duplicated work, costs and secrecy on how taxpayers money is spent.
Central Government must faciliate an increase in the number of green service providers through incentives, regulation and legislation. A realigned communication strategy must be established that focuses on explaining why energy consumption needs to be decreased and benefits of so doing, instead of scaremongering talk of restraint, sacrifice and the end of the world as we know it, if we don't combat climate change. Quangos must be reformed / closed in order to provide the help the private sector needs not what the quangos think is needed.
Benefits to consumer facing organisations
By providing green services, consumer facing organisations will:
- generate new income streams - from providing new 'green' services and / or from receiving referral fees from green service providers.
- Improve public relations - by helping customers and employees improve energy efficiency, organisations can show they are committed to raising environmental awareness
- gain competitive advantage - by helping customers save money and energy, organisations can differentiate themselves from competitors
Benefits to homeowners
By improving the energy efficiency of their homes, owners will:
-
increase property values and rent levels
- enhance quality of life
- reduce energy bills
- lower incidence of cold related illnesses
- lower maintenance costs
- obtain tax benefits (through e.g. LESA for landlords)
- make homes more attractive to buyers and easier to sell
- obtain more stable tenancies
Research by Energy Savings Trust, reveals 54% of buyers would be willing to pay more for an energy efficient home and half of sellers believe homes with ‘greener’ features will be easier to sell. 78% of those surveyed, believe having a ‘poor ‘ energy rating could lead to buyers haggling down the price and 54% believe a 'green' home will be more important than a fashionable home, in the future.
EPCs - an easy way to improve the energy efficiency rating of a home is to implement measures recommended in an EPC such as loft and wall insulation. The net cost to homeowners of implementing measures could be as low as £99 for each measure including VAT, after receipt of a grant arranged for the homeowner. If aged 70 or over or receiving income or disability related benefits, installation of measures, could be free.
All types of homeowner are able to arrange EPCs whether they are moving or not - owner-occupiers, landlords, local authorities, housing associations and builders. Installation of other energy saving measures such as condensing boilers and solar panels can be arranged plus the provision of loans or non-repayable grants to reduce the costs. Whether it be installation of measures for a single property or a large housing portfolio, homeowners can receive competitive prices from locally based accredited installers.
By implementing recommended measures, homeowners can save upto £400pa on their energy bills, make their home more attractive to buyers and potentially increase it's market value.
Pay as you save energy scheme - Under the Green Deal, PAYS will enable homeowners to carry out expensive improvement measures such as solid wall insulation at a low cost with payback through savings in domestic energy bills. Due to the need to cut back local authority spending, banks, building societies and retailers will be needed to provide / promote these to customers.
Retrofitting for example, a victorian property that requires solid wall insulation could cost between £12,000 and £40,000. Costs upto £10,000 will be covered by savings in energy bills and Government is considering providing non-repayable subsidies to cover cost over this.
Feed In Tariffs - FIT is a government backed policy to encourage the uptake of renewable energy. FIT came into effect in April 2010 and covers for example installation of solar systems.
Instead of providing a grant to help consumers and businesses buy a solar system, FIT rewards purchasers for the amount of energy they generate, regardless of whether they consume the electricity or not. Effectively, it enables homeowners to generate electricity and sell the surplus over what is needed to the National Grid. A solar system for a 2-3 bed house would cost around £10,000. The homeowner would earn around £900 a year generating and exporting its own solar electricity and this could be used to help repay any loans that a homeowner took out to purchase a system.
In addition, the homeowner could save around £130 a year on their electricity bill. By installing a solar system, a homeowner would make their home more attractive to buyers and potentially increase it's market value.
Until recently, there has was no financial motive for
Links
Sir Trevor McDonald: The Last Parliament
Govt's Household Energy Mgt Strategy
DECC- Low Carbon Transition Plan
Govt's Heat and Energy Savings Strategy
Conservative Party - Green Deal
How important is energy efficiency when buying property?
£60,000+ to retrofit a victorian house?
Report says skills shortage means UK will miss CO2 target
Information
- Server: web1new.webjam.com
- Total queries:
- Serialization time: 328ms
- Execution time: 390ms
- XSLT time: $$$XSLT$$$ms