Barker: Big six didn’t seize Green Deal opportunity

The architect of the Green Deal has blamed the big six energy suppliers for the lack of uptake by households.

Former Conservative energy minister Greg Barker told The Independent the big six have not “seized the opportunity” provided by the energy efficiency scheme Green Deal.

Barker said: “I expected them to come forward with a comprehensive package for their millions of customers and the bottom line is they haven’t – despite early promises.”

“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 down a wire, as they always have.”

At the launch of the scheme in 2013 Barker said he would be having “sleepless nights” if 10,000 households hadn’t signed up for a loan for energy efficiency upgrades by the end of the year.

The Department for Energy and Climate Change’s latest figures show the number of completed projects is still only 7,817, two and a half years later.

In March trade association Energy UK responded to criticism by Barker that the big six had undermined the scheme by insisting the government had “made it clear” from the outset that the scheme was to be “led by new entrants joining the market, not by suppliers”.

An Energy UK spokesperson said: “The industry understands the importance of improving customers’ energy efficiency and continues to work with government on programmes such as the Energy Company Obligation.”

Last month the Energy and Utilities Alliance (EUA) called for the scheme to be “radically overhauled” by ministers to remove barriers to work such as the overly “bureaucratic” accreditation system and high interest rates.

The Green Deal was launched in 2013 to allow households to take out loans for boilers, insulation and other energy-saving measures, to be repaid over 25 years through household energy bills.