Volume 53 | Issue 7 | July/August 2015
Green initiatives to suffer from budget cutbacks Spending on energy saving programmes may fall victim to the Government’s austerity drive following plans to cut funding to the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) and the Green Deal. Analysis from Green Alliance, a charity and independent think tank focused on the environment, predicts that DECC could lose up to 90% of its staff by 2018 if average reductions across non-protected departments come to pass. A recent report in The Independent also suggests that the Green Deal could be wound down following disappointing numbers in uptake. The home improvement scheme no longer has a minister in charge, with the energy efficiency brief having been handed off to Lord Bourne, a junior minister in the department with other responsibilities in the Welsh Office. It is feared that cutting the budgets for these energy saving programmes could have a chilling effect on delivering energy market reforms and climate change policies. As a result of the cuts announced by Chancellor George Osborne, DECC will be forced to find a savings of around £70million over the next year, with £40million coming from funds that have been set aside for energy efficiency schemes. Further cuts will take hold in the Autumn Spending Review.
Former Energy Secretary Ed Davey has expressed alarm at the prospect of defunding DECC. “The main effect of slashing the headcount at DECC will be cutting economic growth and undermining private sector investment,” he said. “My concern is over the Treasury wanting to cut back and not give energy efficiency the prominence it merits.” The widely-criticised Green Deal is also facing an uncertain future in light of its failure to appeal to homeowners. Greg Barker, the Tory Energy Minister who launched the energy efficiency scheme at the start of 2013, expected the Green Deal to have 10,000 active plans within the first year of operation. Two and a half years on, fewer than 7900 households have completed works under the scheme.
Mr Barker has attributed the scheme’s failure to the Big Six energy companies, saying: “I expected them to come forward with a comprehensive package for their millions of customers, and the bottom line is they haven’t. Installing a whole house retrofit would require substantial investment in skills and equipment to offer that. They prefer to invest their capital in just selling electricity.” The Government also intends to end new public subsidies for onshore wind farms and has to date made no plans to renew the budget for the RHI, which has been ring-fenced only until March 2016. A number of companies within the industry have expressed concerns about the Government’s lack of commitment to build a low-carbon Britain. “The issue of climate change is one which cannot be put on the back burner,” says Paul Hardy, MD at Baxi. “With the former coalition having set a real precedence for green growth, it is important that we do not lose momentum and continue to move a low-carbon economy along – but we need clarity from the Government.”
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Plumber guilty of defrauding customers Restored to former glory
A heating engineer from Instow, North Devon has been found guilty of three charges of fraud and three for contravening Professional Diligence under Consumer Protection legislation following an investigation carried out by Devon and Somerset Trading Standards. The Judge in the case said Gary Henry, 54, trading under the names Barnstaple Plumbing and Heating, and Gary Henry Ltd, had shown ‘serious dishonesty’ in his dealings with customers. After receiving complaints about his work, Devon and Somerset Trading Standards discovered that in 2011 and 2012 Mr Henry
carried out work which was of poor standard and vastly overpriced. The level of over-pricing for parts and labour were so high that the court found him guilty of fraud in relation to three out of four of the complainants’ cases. The quality of some of the work was so poor that experts expressed serious safety concerns. One elderly customer was charged over £25,000 for the replacement of an oil-fired system, which when inspected by an expert was found to have numerous faults. Other installations were found to have unsafe electrical wiring, an oil supply line
unsafely installed and in once case the cavity wall had not been properly sealed where a flue passed through it, posing a fire risk. Mr Henry had also invoiced customers for work that had not been done, and falsely claimed in advertisements and on documentation that he was registered with OFTEC, the main trade association of technicians working with oil-fired heating and cooking systems, when he was not. According to experts, Mr Henry’s invoices and work were exorbitant and excessive. He will be sentenced after probation reports and a financial investigation are conducted.
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