MPs have criticised the government’s lack of definite goals for its flagship Green Deal scheme.
In a report in the government’s flagship energy efficiency programme, the Energy and Climate Change Select Committee said the government was unable to outline what success for the Green Deal would look like, and it was “unacceptable” that the government was not able to articulate what the scheme’s objectives were.
The report, the first of a series of reports from the committee on the scheme, said it was “impossible” to hold the government to account because of its lack of direction.
The report said: “It is unacceptable that, three years into the life of this parliament, ministers are incapable of defining the actual goals of one of the coalition’s flagship policies.
“This is not a question of ‘micromanaging’ but rather trying to gain an unambiguous view of what the department expects to happen as a result of its policy intervention.”
The report said the committee was “surprised” that energy minister Greg Barker was not able to outline what he felt a successful Green Deal scheme would look like.
The report said: “The minister was either reluctant or unable to answer our questions about exactly what he hoped the Green Deal would achieve. For example, when we asked the minister how many homes he expected to have improved over the next five years, what the net benefit per home would be, and what the carbon reduction would be, he was not able to give us a definitive answer.”
It said the details of how the government would evaluate the scheme were “opaque”.
It recommended that the government set out what carbon savings, employment opportunities and private investment it expected the scheme to achieve.
The report recommended the Department of Energy and Climate Change set out projections for uptake of the Green Deal, though it was clear that the committee felt it was not appropriate to have targets for a market driven scheme.
The committee also recommended that the government set up detailed research to monitor the actual carbon savings achieved by the scheme and the reasons people drop out of the application and assessment process.
Paul King, chief executive of the UK Green Building Council, said the jury was still out on up-take of the scheme until official figures are published next month.
He added: “Government needs to work with the private sector, to produce a clear routemap for retrofitting the UK’s 26 million gas-guzzling homes, detailing what needs to be achieved, by when – giving industry the confidence to invest in a new market of energy services and retrofit solutions.”
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