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Rogue traders must not be allowed to take advantage of the Government’s Green Deal ‘revolution’, warns the Federation of Master Builders.
The Green Deal is the Government’s refit scheme aimed at reducing carbon emissions from existing buildings and making them more energy efficient, launched last week by, Energy Secretary Chris Huhne MP at the Liberal Deomcrat Party Conference.
Under the Green Deal scheme energy companies will pay up front for household energy efficiency improvements and will recover their spending from energy bill savings that result. In a potentially significant move for the building industry, the Government has also committed to extending the Green Deal to cover businesses as well as households.
Brian Berry, director of external affairs at the FMB said: “Housing is responsible for more than a quarter of the UK’s carbon emissions and it is essential that a market is created to drive the retrofitting of our existing stock. We know from research that retrofitting the UK’s existing 26 million homes has the potential to add between £3.5 billion and £6.5 billion to the existing RMI market for housing.
“The extra demand created by the Green Deal must not fill the order books of cowboy builders. It is important that those charged with carrying out the energy efficiency improvement work are recognised as competent in order to safeguard householders as well as reputable builders.
“The FMB believes a registration or accreditation scheme is necessary to determine the approved installers and to prevent the work going to rogue traders, who would risk standards and thereby undermine the scheme.”
