Objectives of the consultation
This consultation, which ended on 18 January 2012, was seeking views on the details of the Green Deal and ECO policies to be implemented in secondary legislation and under the energy licensing framework.
The Energy Act 2011 made provisions for the development of a Green Deal and a new Energy Company Obligation (ECO) to replace the existing Carbon Emissions Reduction Target (CERT) and the Community Energy Saving Programme (CESP), which will both expire in 2012.
Green Deal is a market led framework that will allow individuals and businesses to make energy efficiency improvements to their buildings at no upfront cost. Central to the Green Deal is a finance mechanism that will allow access to the finance needed for the improvements with repayment, in instalments, attached to the electricity bill.
Underpinning the delivery of the Green Deal is the ECO. ECO will place one or more obligations on energy companies requiring them to generate a specific amount of credit by facilitating the installation of energy efficiency measures in homes in Great Britain before a set deadline. ECO has been designed to fit within the Green Deal framework and provide support, in the domestic sector, where Green Deal finance alone is not enough.
Supporting papers
For an overview of the consultation please follow the link to the executive summary below.
The full consultation can be accessed on the DECC website.
CIBSE Response
CIBSE feels that the 8 week consultation period was not a reasonable timescale for response to a package of documents of this magnitude. This also spanned the Christmas period, further hindering the assembly of responses from CIBSE membership. CIBSE questiones whether the consultation complies with the Cabinet Office guidelines in this respect. Whilst CIBSE understands the constraints of the Green Deal timescale, and welcomes the urgency of the Coalition in driving this issue forward, CIBSE does not think that the consultation period was satisfactory and the unduly short timescale has reduced the ability of respondents to undertake a thorough review of the whole package of documents on which the government consulted.
The CIBSE response focussed on 3 chapters:
To read the response CIBSE submitted to Government, please follow the link below.
Results of the consultation and next steps
The Government response, released on 11 June 2012, sets out the key issues that came out of the consultation process and describes the amendments made as a result. It also includes a summary of responses to each question asked during the consultation and the corresponding response. To read the Government response please follow the link below.
The Green Deal and ECO policy will be brought into effect through legislation being laid out in parliament throughout June 2012.