The Green Deal is failing despite the huge sums invested in promoting it.
The Green Deal is failing despite the huge sums invested in promoting it
The Department of Energy and Climate Change has spent more than £3m since last October on advertising and marketing for the Green Deal, the government’s flagship energy efficiency policy.
This is despite the fact that the Green Deal has seen a disastrously low rate of take up.
When former energy minister Greg Barker was asked in March 2013 how many people he expected to have signed up to the deal by the end of the year, he gave 10,000 as a minimum figure.
As Left Foot Forward reported at the start of the year, Barker has since been forced to admit that the actual uptake has been much lower than this:
“We thought we’d do about 10,000 in the first 12 months, but in the first eight months since the plans have been available, there are just under 2,000 in the system. So we’re much lower than we expected.”
The latest figures show that just 2,581 households have had measures installed under the scheme. This represents fewer than one per cent of the households who had a Green Deal assessment.
Nevertheless, the Green Deal’s communications team has expanded by 40 per cent, and now employs 59 people. This includes 12 press officers.
In June 2014, the government announced plans to boost the low level of uptake by introducing a Green Deal Home Improvement Fund. But by the end of July ministers had been forced to close the fund when the money ran out.
This meant that some customers who had already paid for an assessment and expected it to be refunded under the cashback scheme £100 out of pocket.
The government’s figures also show that 440,000 households will miss out on help to install energy efficiency measure that would reduce their bills, because of changes to the Energy Company Obligation.
Jonathan Reynolds MP, Labour’s shadow minister for energy and climate change, said:
“The government’s Green Deal has been a disaster, with 99 per cent of people who have had an assessment saying ‘no deal’. This Tory-led government is wasting money hand over fist on this policy.
“It would have been cheaper to send their advertising executives out in a hired limo with a drill and some lagging to do the work themselves.
“Labour has committed to ending this scandalous waste of money and set out plans to freeze energy bills, reform the energy market and upgrade at least five million homes over 10 years. Our plans will mean cheaper bills and warmer homes for millions.”
In July 2013, a marketing company representing the Green Deal was fined £45,000 for making thousands of sales calls trying to persuade households to sign-up to home energy efficiency improvements.
Ruby Stockham is a staff writer at Left Foot Forward. Follow her on Twitter
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12 Responses to “Government blows £3m of Green Deal budget on marketing”
swat
God knows how long we’ve ben talking about the Green Deal, and yet its not sinking throufgh to the general populace that they can actually save money even get insulation free. So that may explain why £3m on promotion. There are lots of companies in the market and each one is sending out adverts as well. A better approach would bge to go to every house in the street and fine the owner for not insulating and then force them to insulate or pay another fine.
The Govt is virtually trying to give money away and yet so few takers.
Leon Wolfeson
Free? No, the program is generally a loan. How is that going to be attractive even to the subset of tenants who qualify, for example (we don’t, living above a flat), and they still need landlords permission…
Fines for poor energy assessments would be slapped onto rents. No, we need rent caps, and those rent caps should be partly based on energy efficiency.
JohnRich
More “green crap”.
Guest
About three minutes corporate welfare. Well, less.
But hey, details.
swat
I’m thinking of insulating my loft with all this junk mail I get about the Green Deal.