ECO retrofit measures dip sharply

The number of energy efficiency measures installed through the Energy Companies Obligation plummeted following the government’s announcement of cuts to the scheme, official figures have revealed.

The latest Energy Companies Obligation (ECO) and Green Deal figures showed there were 66,480 retrofit measures installed in December, a fall of 19% on the number installed the previous month.

The fall followed the government’s announcement in December of major cuts to the scheme, although the Department of Energy and Climate Change attributed the fall to a hiatus in work over the Christmas period.

However, as Building revealed last month, work contracted under ECO collapsed following the announcement of government plans to slash the scheme, with just £1.2m of ECO work contracted through the government’s brokerage system in December, compared with £57.6m in November.

The latest figures showed there was a light pick up in the amount of work contracted through the ECO brokerage system in January, with the amount of work rising to £14.9m, up from £1.2m in December. However this is still down 74% on the £57.6m of work contracted in November.

Meanwhile, the figures also revealed that at the end of January there were 746 live Green Deal plans, meaning the household has had the energy efficiency measures installed and is now paying off the cost of the work through their energy bill.

This is a rise of 15% from the 646 live Green Deal plans at the end of December.

The figures showed there were a further 481 signed Green Deal plans in the pipeline.

The number of both signed and live plans falls far short of expectations. Energy minister Greg Barker has previously said he expected 10,000 plans to be signed by the end of 2013.

The figures showed there were 15,268 Green Deal assessments carried out in January, up 23% on December, but below the peak of 16,677 in October. In all there have now been 145,110 assessments carried out since the scheme was launched in January 2013.

The figures also showed a continued decline in the number of payments made through the government’s £125m cash back scheme designed to drive Green Deal take-up, with just 366 payments made in January, down from 440 in December and a peak of 3,298 last June.

Just £2.6m has now been paid out through the £125m incentive scheme.