Building’s Sustainability White Paper finds no developers currently banking on using the funding

Developers are being cautious about taking up Green Deal finance to improve their existing stock, research for Building’s Sustainability White Paper has found.

A survey of developers revealed that none are currently planning on using the funding, although 87% said they would explore it. A further 13% said they had already decided not to take advantage of the Green Deal.

Angus McIntosh, consultant at Real Estate Forecasting and member of the environment group at the British Council of Offices, said: “The government has overestimated the effect the Green Deal will have in the commercial sector. It’s very complicated and very risky.”

He said landlords were not the ones using the energy in commercial buildings and most of the Green Deal benefits would be reaped by tenants.

He added that the biggest single source of energy consumption was computer servers and their energy usage could not be reduced with Green Deal measures.

Zoe Leader, energy efficiency adviser at WWF, said: “I suspect there’s better ways of landlords arranging the finance, which highlights our concerns about what the interest rate will be.”

She said the interest rate applied to the Green Deal needed to be competitive or it would not drive take-up in the commercial sector.

ORDER BUILDING’S SUSTAINABILITY WHITE PAPER AT:

www.building.co.uk/sustwhitepaper

 

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