Government puts £50m into Green Deal

The government has put £50m towards financing its flagship Green Deal scheme. The news emerged as the number of assessment under the scheme soared to 7,465 in March, the second full month of the programme’s operation.

The Green Deal Finance Company (GDFC) this week revealed that it has been backed by £50m of funding from government as part of its £244m initial funding package, which it announced last month.

The government has put £20m into the company and has provided a guarantee of up to £30m of contingency funding. The £20m will only be called upon once the other funding in the pot is exhausted, and the £30m contingency fund is only for use if defaults on Green Deal loans rise higher than expected.

The contingency funding is provided through the government’s UK Guarantee’s scheme, which aims to underwrite infrastructure projects.

Sixteen stakeholders in the company also put in funding totalling £69m including contractor Carillion, insulation firm InstaGroup and housing provider Gentoo.

The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) contributed a total of £25m to the £69m stakeholder pot, including a previously announced loan of £12m. A senior debt facility from the Green Investment Bank contributed £125m to the package, bringing the total to £244m.

Mark Bayley, chief executive of the GDFC, said it was now ready to offer Green Deal providers a “one-stop-shop to set up, finance and administer Green Deal plans”.

Meanwhile, official statistics published this week revealed there had been 7,465 Green Deal assessments in March, the scheme’s second full month of operation, up from 1,729 in February.

Energy minister Greg Barker said the Green Deal market was “gathering real momentum”.

Richard Griffiths, policy and campaigns consultant at the UK Green Building Council (UKGBC), said the figures were “encouraging”.

He added: “The real proof will be how many of these assessments are ‘converted’ into installations. Long-term incentives will be key to ensuring that there is continued demand for the Green Deal and not just an initial bubble.”

Griffiths said UKGBC members were reporting an increased demand for retrofit work since the launch of the Green Deal in January.

The government figures also revealed £42m of Energy Company Obligation funding - which is used to pay for energy efficiency measures in buildings - had been spent in March, up from £17.4m in February.

Plus, the number of providers, installers and assessors within the scheme all grew. There are now 831 installer organisations accredited, 48 providers accredited and 108 assessor organisations accredited.