Construction firms among first Green Deal providers

Contractors Carillion and Willmott Dixon and housebuilder Keepmoat are among 22 organisations set to become the first to provide the government’s Green Deal scheme.

All the organisations have signed an agreement with Department of Energy and Climate Change to work to become the first providers of the scheme.

Providers of the Green Deal are central to the scheme as they will broker the deals with consumers and provide the finance necessary to fund the energy efficiency installations, which consumers then payback with a charge on their energy bills.

Energy minister Greg Barker said the announcement was a watershed moment: “The commitment shown today highlights the opportunity organisations see in the Green Deal from community groups, small and medium enterprises to big business, which only bodes well for the scheme’s future success.”

The list (see below) also included specialist contractor Mark Group, social housing developer Gentoo, community interest small enterprise Yorkshire Energy Services and builders merchant Grafton Group.

But major retailers such as Marks & Spencer and Tesco, which have all previously been linked with participation in the scheme, were absent from the list.

Ian Sutcliffe, chief executive of Keepmoat, said: “As a national provider of housing solutions and having already delivered Green Deal fundable works to over 250,000 homes, we’re well placed to deliver the Green Deal with our partners.”

Sally Hancox, director at Gentoo Group, said: “The principles of the Green Deal are sound and we believe that social housing can play a great part.

“It’s vital that we get the finer detail of the Green Deal right in order to deliver warmer homes for our customers while simultaneously tackling fuel poverty and carbon reduction.”