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The Department for Energy and Climate Change last night announced that the Green Deal Home Improvement Fund is closed for applications with immediate effect “due to overwhelming popular demand”.
A surge in applications over the last two days means the allocated budget has now been reached. All applications received prior to the fund closing that satisfy the terms and conditions and meet the eligibility criteria will be honoured at the original rates.
The Green Deal Home Improvement Fund was set up in June to help households in England and Wales improve the energy efficiency of their homes.
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Energy & Climate Change, Amber Rudd, said in an official DECC press release: “The Green Deal Home Improvement Fund is a world first and in a short space of time it has proved extremely popular.
“We were always clear there was a budget which is why we encouraged people to act quickly.
Only this week, DECC had announced changes to the scheme, caused by the hugely positive response since its launch at the beginning of June.
The Department of Energy and Climate Change will monitor voucher redemption rates and will consider whether to launch a further offer should funds become available.
Jonathan Reynolds MP, Labour’s shadow energy and climate change minister, called the closure “a shocking act of incompetence by Government Ministers”.
He said: “A fund that was supposed to last the year, and compensate for the cuts to energy efficiency measures announced last December, has run out after just six weeks.
“It will leave many customers who have paid £100 for a Green Deal assessment out of pocket, with little prospect of them having the work they were promised done, and an insulation industry in despair at the stop-start nature of this Government’s policy.
“We have always said this was the wrong way to make pay-as-you-save energy efficiency work. The Government must now provide clear answers on how they will resolve the mess they have created. Given the scale of incompetence and waste of public funds, I am writing to the Chair of the Public Accounts Committee to ask her to investigate this matter fully.”
