Builders Merchants Journal At the forefront of publishing to the UK merchanting industry for more than 95 years
Plumbers merchant chain Plumb Center is encouraged by the first quarterly Green Deal statistics which show almost 40,000 people have had an assessment carried out.
The key figures released by the Department of Energy and Climate Change show that, although only 241 Green Deal Plans have been agreed with just four signed,:
Plumb Center’s Head of Sustainability Tim Pollard says: “The latest figures are very promising. 40,000 assessments is a significant marketplace and installers will know that represents more than a fad – I can’t imagine any installer not thinking it’s a good thing.
“Having an assessment is good value. The fact householders get a professional report, which lists the measures their property can benefit from, and quantifies the savings, is a massive step forward.
“The early adopters are the people who are passionate about the scheme. We’ve had those now and I might be an eternal optimist, but I think more people will start to get on board.
“It’s also very interesting to see almost 1,000 people have replaced their old boiler with a high-efficiency one, and claimed Green Deal cashback. If the UK is going to hit its carbon targets, we need homes to use high-efficiency heating systems, so it’s great to see leaky boilers are on the way out.
“Inevitably there’s been a lot of ill-founded criticism about Green Deal because it took longer to start than some thought it would, and maybe uptake hasn’t been as quick as they thought. But the people at the heart of Green Deal knew it wasn’t going to produce a tsunami of demand at the start, it was going to be a scheme of longevity and the time to judge is at its end, not its beginning.”
