After months and months of debate, discussion and pretty much arguing, the Government has finally gone to the public to launch their new flagship Green Deal scheme.

As well know already, the scheme aims to reduce the amount of energy our buildings use in this country. On the world stage, we are one of the worst in terms of inefficient buildings. It is our old commercial buildings and and pre-1960’s housing stock that are the worst offenders. But as we all know, many of the businesses that are viable to take part in the scheme have far too many doubts and concerns and probably won’t be taking part.

I watched an interview on Sky News this morning with official Green Deal Ambassador Tommy Walsh, part of the Ground Force TV programme years ago. He seemed to have a fair grasp on how the scheme worked and the mechanics of it all, but was tellingly lacking in the amount of positive spin he was putting on it. He opened by commenting that the challenge was for the Government to get the message out to the people. At the end of the interview, rather embarrassingly, when asked what website people could go to, to enquire about the scheme, he didn’t even know. So a good start there then!

As has already been mentioned, it is the poorest that live in council housing that will benefit from the Green Deal. Therefore those home improvement companies that have contracts with councils will benefit. From a residential point of view, I think the standard methods of installing new energy efficient measures will remain dominant. It is more than likely that those living in non-council houses have more spending power to buy the home improvement measures outright and not have to tag on another loan to the property and drag the whole thing out.

The other major issue is going to be the amount of companies that have registered to carry out Green Deal work. At the moment, there are very few. It will need thousands of companies covering different sectors to be able to carry out the large amount of work that the Government hopes it will generate. But at the moment, less that a fifth of people haven’t even heard heard of the scheme. So even if there was thousands of companies at the ready, they’re going to be left waiting.

In a previous Green Deal post, I mentioned that one of the few positives of the scheme might be the increased interest in the window and door industry. Even if the Green Deal fails to generate Green Deal work, if it spawns more leads and more standard sales, then in the end it is a good thing, even if it is successful in a way the Government didn’t originally plan.

Anyway. Now the thing has been launched into the public domain, we’ll have to wait and see how things turn out.

I have built a resource on the Green Deal, including every post I’ve written on the subject, as well as a list of websites with other Green Deal information on there. Click this link: https://www.doubleglazingblogger.com/green-deal/