Deal or no Deal? (The Green Deal, that is)

The potential felt enormous, the excitement was palpable and the outcomes were uncertain... You probably wouldn’t guess that I was describing the atmosphere at a government consultation workshop yesterday. But that is exactly how I feel after a day spent with the UK Green Building Council, representatives from DECC and nearly 200 experts and leaders from across industry. It followed the launch of the much anticipated ‘Green Deal and Energy Company Obligation Consultation' last week and a few short days to digest the 236 pages and 24 supporting documents.

While I’m not suggesting that the success or failure of one of the Coalition Government’s flagship energy programmes will be as random as a certain TV game show, there’s certainly a lot to play for. We’ve now been presented with the overall framework, but the devil will always be in the detail, of course, something we found with our pilot domestic retrofit programme Refit West. The primary legislation, including the financial mechanism allowing capital investment in a property to be recouped through the energy bills, passed into law with the Energy Bill 2011. The bit we’re engaged with now is all about how we actually translate that into building works and improvements in our homes.

Forum, alongside numerous others, has been working with DECC to ensure that the final shape and fine-print of the Green Deal maximises opportunities for the economy, the environment and the quality of life for homeowners. It feels like the Government has been listening on this one, reinforced by Greg Barker, undersecretary of state for DECC, asking the delegates for ideas on how best to spend the £200 million ring-fenced by treasury to kick start the delivery in autumn next year… answers on a postcard to Greg please.

I implore politicians and civil servants alike to keep an open mind as people feed back on this extremely complex consultation.

At the workshop, a series of speakers from different sectors gave their initial views on the consultation. They all started with positive endorsement for the scheme, and that felt right. But they also raised a number of big questions that should be considered if this scheme is going to work. And two other themes kept cropping up. One was a plea for Government to align incentives and clear out disincentives – such as VAT being charged at 5% on energy consumption but 20% on energy efficiency works. The second was a plea to provide a stable and robust platform for investment, where recent actions have left significant ground to make up (I’m thinking of the Renewable Heat Incentive, the Feed-in Tariffs and the Carbon Reduction Commitment). Confidence is going to be crucial.

I was also pleased to hear speakers and delegates talking about ‘people’, not just ‘customers’. A nuance for many, but it encourages us to ask questions like, ‘what does this mean to me and my family?’ Solitaire Townsend, of the sustainability communications experts Futerra, suggested we use the language of the home and not of the workplace; let’s talk about using less gas and electricity, rather than increasing energy efficiency!

The market-driven solution presented in the consultation is no bad thing as competition will drive down costs and ensure high quality marketing. But there’s a risk – if we get a repeat of dodgy double glazing salesmen or poor installation we will be storing up problems for the future. We need to be careful to ensure that the quality is high, it is equitable for home owners, and that smaller businesses are not excluded. We also need to include and involve communities as these could be the fastest route to scale.

OK, I may have got carried away by describing the excitement as palpable; maybe I should have used ‘tempered’. What really excited me though was the recognition among those involved that no one can do it on their own and that success will be through collaboration and innovation.

As many of us now get to grips with the detail of the Green Deal consultation there are significant questions unanswered and details still required. But what is clear is that strategies aren’t about beating but rather working with the banker, the contractor, the communities and, yes, people to deliver a deal we’re all proud of. Let’s shake up the way we engage with energy in our homes.

• Ben works at Forum on creating a sustainable energy system, and was manager of the domestic retrofit project Refit West where they have  just published a number of technical case studies.
• Check out out Green Futures special edition on retrofitting, Retro and Fit. You can download it here for free, or get a paper copy delivered to your door for £4.