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The GMB union has backed Centrica in its calls for changes to the government Energy Company Obligation (Eco) stating that "thousands of installers" have lost jobs as the system is "too bureaucratic".
It also stated that hundreds and millions of pounds has gone unspent on the initiative and that the government’s sister Green Deal project “is a miserable failure”.
The backing from GMB came in reaction to comments made by Centrica chief executive Sam Laidlaw to a national newspaper, where he stated that Centrica’s environmental costs had been upped by £100 million this year, due to the carbon abatement costing £100-£120 per tonne under Eco, up from £25-£30 per tonne under the scheme’s predecessor, the Carbon Emissions Reduction Target (Cert).
In response to Laidlaw’s comments this morning a spokesman for Decc said: “The schemes are completely different in design, and the carbon opportunities in the real world have changed hugely over recent years.”
“We have seen no hard evidence to suggest we should change our estimate that Eco will cost around £1.3 billion a year.”
Gary Smith, GMB national secretary for energy and utilities, said: “GMB agree with the criticisms of Eco made by Centrica.
The principle in the Green Deal launched 8 months ago of insulating homes is right. Bills are going to go up and we need to take action to protect people.
“The Green Deal is a miserable failure as we predicted. Radical change is needed both to the government Energy Company Obligation scheme (Eco) and Green Deal. It is shameful that we have insulation installers idle and losing their jobs.”
Smith added: “Under the Eco regime work has dried up, thousands of installers have lost their jobs and hundreds of millions of pounds that could be used to create jobs and insulate homes goes unspent because the system is too bureaucratic and complex. It is madness and needs leadership.”
The GMB said that fewer than 250 households have taken up this flagship energy efficiency programme in the first five months of the scheme and just four homes have signed up to a “green deal” plan, covering the upfront costs of measures such as insulation and new efficient boilers with the money paid back through savings on bills, and 241 households are going ahead with the scheme but have yet to sign.
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