Labour slams 'burying' of Green Deal research

Labour has slammed the government’s reluctance to publish research into customer demand for the Green Deal saying it is trying to “bury the evidence”.

The Department of Energy and Climate Change is yet to publish four pieces of research into the customer demand for the Green Deal, some of which was conducted last summer. The research includes two studies that entailed interviewing thousands of consumers and businesses about how likely they were to take-up the Green Deal.

Responding to a parliamentary question, Barker said that the research would not be available until the government published its response to the consultation on the Green Deal.

But that response is likely to run to hundreds of pages of detail on the scheme and Labour fears publishing both at the same time is designed to distract from the findings of the research.

Shadow energy secretary Caroline Flint told Building: “Until the government comes clean about what this research shows, people will think ministers have something to hide.

“Instead of trying to bury the evidence about what the public really think about the Green Deal, ministers should focus on delivering a scheme that works for the public.”

A DECC spokesperson said: “Completed research is already publicly available, anything we have not published yet will be made available soon.”