The Government has announced a new package of Green Deal measures to help householders keep their homes warmer and cheaper to run.
From June 2014, people in England and Wales will be able to get up to £7,600 back through a new Green Deal Home Improvement Fund (GDHIF).
The scheme aims to help homeowners – both owner-occupiers and landlords – to install a range of energy efficiency measures such as solid wall insulation and new heating systems. It will work by offering money back on the cash spent on energy efficient improvements.
Green Deal Home Improvement Fund
The GDHIF is made up of two core offers and two add-on offers.
Core offer 1 provides householders with up to £1,000 cashback on two energy-saving improvements from a set list of 12 eligible measures.
These are: a condensing mains gas boiler, fan-assisted storage heaters, flue gas heat recovery, replacement warm-air unit, waste water heat recovery, cavity wall insulation, flat roof insulation, floor insulation, room-in-roof insulation, double/triple glazing, secondary glazing, energy efficient replacement doors.
Core offer 2 provides up to £6,000 cashback or 75% of the total cost of the installation of internal or external solid wall insulation.
Householders can choose one or both core offers.
The first add-on offer allows householders to claim a refund of up to £100 for a Green Deal Assessment Report (GDAR) that is less than 24 months old when they do work in this scheme.
The second add-on offer provides an additional bonus of up to £500 for homebuyers who have bought a home in the last 12 months prior to application.
Combining all the core offers and add-ons together means homebuyers who have bought a home in the 12 months prior to application can claim up to a total of £7,600.
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How to claim the cashback
There are certain criteria householders must meet to be eligible for the GDHIF scheme.
Firstly, they must apply for the voucher before the work starts. Secondly, measures must be recommended in an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) or GDAR carried out in the last 24 months.
[SPOTLIGHT]However, householders won’t be eligible if they are in receipt of ECO or other central Government funding for energy saving improvements.
Once they have received their voucher, homeowners must have the improvements installed by a registered Green Deal installer or provider within six months. Once the work has been completed, they need to submit their voucher – countersigned by the Green Deal installer or provider – with copies of the invoice, PAS2030 Claim(s) of Conformity, and their Green Deal Assessment Report invoice.
If all the documentation is submitted correctly they should receive the payment within 10 working days.
GDHIF is designed to work alongside Green Deal finance and householders can choose whether or not to take the Green Deal finance option.
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How much can you save?
According to the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), a typical three-bedroom semi-detached house, which installs all of the major measures including solid wall insulation would save around £270 on an annual energy bill.
Switching to a more energy efficient boiler provides one of the best savings and reduces bills by about £100.
The original Green Deal
The changes are an attempt to re-vamp the original Green Deal. Launched in 2013, the scheme was billed by ministers as the "biggest home improvement programme since the second world war".
Customers paid for energy efficiency improvements via loans which were repaid through energy bills and transferred with the property rather than those who took out the loan. It was a novel concept as it meant new tenants or owners become liable for a debt they did not enter into.
However, the intention was that savings on energy bills would outweigh the cost of repayments.
One downside of the scheme was that it required an assessment of £150 or more to determine what, if any, work can be done. Loans were also a bit more expensive than normal personal loans which put people off. Failure to repay the loans could ultimately lead to gas and electricity disconnection.
All in all, the loans were not popular due to there being no guarantee of achieving the stated energy cost savings, and the property potentially being difficult to sell or remortgage.
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