Buildings
The role of local government The most obvious way in which councils can increase uptake and reduce costs derives from the fact that they do not need to please shareholders and are only required – in a straitened fiscal climate – to at least cover their costs. Secondly, councils enjoy a generally trustworthy reputation amongst the public. YouGov found that 46 per cent would trust their local authority to deliver a Green Deal scheme, significantly more than for their electricity supplier (31 per cent) or a retail chain (9 per cent). Furthermore, research from the New Local Government Network (NLGN) identified in its 2010 Paint the Town Green report multiple communications channels through which local authorities are able to engage communities. These included
tenants and residents associations, schools and youth clubs or faith groups and other community bodies. A housing association in East Anglia has even partnered with Ipswich Town Football Club to encourage better domestic energy use. Local authorities have good links with all these community groups, which in turn have a visible, trusted presence across neighbourhoods and areas. If enlisted by the council to promote the Green Deal, they could significantly increase demand.
46 per cent would trust their local authority to deliver a Green Deal scheme. Demand for the Green Deal is also intrinsically linked to cost and scaleability. The most obvious way in which the longterm costs of the scheme can be reduced is through economies of scale. The Sustainable Development Commission estimate in the 2010 The Future is Local report that coordinated, area-wide energy efficiency improvements can save 30 per cent compared to the per unit costs of treating each home individually. Local authorities and social landlords are in a strong position to drive this bulk-purchasing of Green Deal measures, particularly by using their social housing estate as a base load. Though it would not be possible to compel social housing tenants to
Cavity wall insulation.
participate in the Green Deal, there are already channels through which to engage them, and an understanding in place that, in their capacity as landlord, the council or housing association will undertake refurbishments on the property from time to time.
Coordinating development In the modern housing environment, creating such a bulk-purchasing plan would involve a number of different social landlords (in addition to those private households whom the local authority was able to engage). The formation of successful and mutually beneficial partnerships with housing associations and arms length management organisations is likely to be one of the most important challenges for local authorities seeking to implement the Green Deal. Equally, for many authorities, it will make practical and financial sense to coordinate Green Deal measures across political boundaries. By working with neighbouring councils, they will be able to create a Green Deal market of sufficient size to interest the investment community in providing the upfront finance for the measures, in much the same way that the GDFC aggregator intends to work, and it has been suggested that local authorities could also join the GDFC. Identifying the right level at which this work should be coordinated (through local enterprise partnerships, for example) and managing partnerships successfully will be critical to the Green Deal’s success. The evidence suggests then, that coordinated, cost-effective action, achieving economies of scale, and targeted marketing that exploits every available communications channel – with local authorities playing a leading role in all instances – are the key to implementing the Green Deal successfully.
Hard-to-treat homes
© Flickr/Bryn Pinzgauer
or Marks and Spencer; and the ‘big six’ energy suppliers have all have met recently with climate change minister Greg Barker to discuss the Green Deal, and will bring their considerable marketing and customer service expertise to bear in driving uptake. A number of these companies also recently formed a ‘Green Deal Finance Company’ (GDFC), through which to aggregate household Green Deal debts and sell them in packages to the financial markets. This would enable them to secure the finance for the upfront cost of the Green Deal measures at a lower cost, and to pass this saving onto customers in the form of lower interest rates.
However, even with demand and eligibility maximised, it is probable that there will be millions of households unable to fulfil the ‘golden rule.’ According to the Building Research Establishment in their 2008 Study of hard-to-treat homes using the English Housing Condition Survey, around 43 per Civic Energy
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