Friday 10 October 2014

Green Deal Home Improvement Fund Re-Launched

Homes across the UK will be able to apply for up to £7,600 to pay for new boilers, double glazing and wall insulation from November 2014 as part of the Green Deal Home Improvement Fund (GDHIF).

A total of £100 million will be made available to households that meet the requirements. This will be the second round of cash up for grabs after the initial £120 million the government made available earlier in the year was understandably very fast to go.


Ed Davey, Energy secretary is expected to officially announce the new funds for the GDHIF at a liberal democrat conference in Glasgow. He is also expected to be praising moves to make it easier for consumers to switch energy supply in order save money, and will be encouraging smaller energy companies to take a larger share of the market over the coming years.

The Liberal Democrats also confirmed plans to offer households £100 annually, as part of a government funded council tax discount over the next decade, but only if those households improve the energy efficiency of their homes.

The GDHIF will allow each eligible household to apply for a total of £7,600 to improve their home's energy efficiency, this includes £500 for people that have moved house in the past year. The £100 million available from November is a welcome addition to the £450 million allocated for the same purpose in December of 2013.

Mr Davey will also be announcing that the top energy companies in the UK are on track to meet the challenge he set in 2013 to reduce the amount of time it takes to switch suppliers, achieving a period of just two and a half weeks for a switch over, down from five weeks.

He will announce that all of the major energy firms are now on schedule to meet the challenge he set last year to halve from five to two-and-a-half weeks the time it takes to switch between suppliers.

"We've delivered, not by tweaking the same old business-as-usual models we inherited from Labour, not by doing what our Tory Coalition colleagues wanted or what the big energy companies or Whitehall wanted us to do,’ Mr Davey was expected to say."

"We're succeeding because we are outsiders, without vested interests. To begin the big shift from fossil fuels. To take on the Big Six energy firms Labour left Britain with. To win in Europe and the UN for ambitious climate change."

"That's why I can announce today that I am delivering on my promise to halve switching times this year. Every major energy firm is on schedule to deliver the faster switching I have demanded. And that's why I want to keep backing the agents of real change in Britain's energy markets - the small firms, innovating to win business."




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