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Green Deal is ‘on track’ for October launch, says Barker

by Roger Milne

Ministers have insisted in Parliament that the Green Deal, the flagship energy efficiency programme, is on target to launch in October.

Opposition MPs claimed that the secondary legislation required had not been finalised and that other major uncertainties remained. “We are still waiting for the secondary legislation to be published,” complained Luciana Berger, the shadow minister for energy and climate change.

“Energy companies do not know whether they are going to be ready for the launch, no Green Deal assessors have been trained, no detail is available on the interest rate, and the government’s wildly optimistic predictions on jobs and take-up are constantly being downgraded,” she added.

However, climate change minister Greg Barker denied there were problems. He told MPs of a recent “excellent meeting” with the prime minister and the deputy prime minister, which reviewed the ­programme.

“We are all on track. We will be publishing the secondary legislation very shortly. It will be done and dusted before the summer recess,” he said.

· The Green Deal Finance Company has announced it has doubled its membership to 41 since launching in March and now includes all the big six suppliers.

This article first appeared in Utility Week’s print edition of 25 May 2012.

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