Member Article

Green Deal good news for North East

The Energy and Environmental Industries Forum has welcomed the ‘Green Deal’ measures unveiled by the government to cut carbon emissions.

The Forum, which represents the low carbon environmental goods and services sector in the North East believe that the new measures will be of great environmental and economic benefit, at a time when energy bills continue to rise.

Under the plans, businesses, landlords and homeowners will be encouraged to install green technologies with no upfront costs, and would repay the loan as an energy bill surcharge over the following 25 years.

Chris Hayward from the EEIF believes there is a definite need for innovative measures to cut carbon emissions.

He said: “This is an area where the North East can really benefit and use our expertise with opportunities for installers, trainers and other businesses. There’s really the opportunity for a new industry to develop.

“From an economic perspective too, investment in green technologies can drive growth and create significant work and job opportunities for businesses specialising in low carbon technologies.”

Nonetheless, the Forum has now called for greater detail around the plans, especially on possible regulations of the scheme.

Chris continued: “It will be interesting to see if DECC will provide a regulatory/overseeing role and ‘a safe pair of hands’ to ensure that things are done correctly as regards standards and training.

Chris also believes that businesses will need some form of encouragement to take up the scheme - which is at the moment, lacking.

He concluded: “Given that the Government has cut support for solar feed-in tariffs and support for carbon capture recently, it needs to demonstrate that it wants to make these ideas work – particularly if it wants to make good its claim of being the ‘greenest government’ ever.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .