A new financing framework called The Green Deal is to be launched next autumn as part of the recently unveiled Energy Act 2011. The government hopes this will revolutionise the energy efficiency of both domestic and commercial properties within Britain, enabling improvements to be funded by a charge on energy bills avoiding the need for consumers to pay the cost of improvements upfront.
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Owner occupiers and landlords, both commercial and domestic are covered by the scheme. |
| Domestic Sector |
| The Act includes provisions to ensure that from April 2016, private residential landlords will be required to honour reasonable requests from their tenants for energy efficiency improvements where a finance package, such as the Green Deal and/or the Energy Company Obligation (ECO), is available. |
| Local Authorities will also be able to insist that landlords of the worst performing properties make all energy efficiency improvements for which financial support is available. Attention will be focused on properties with an EPC rating of F or G. |
| Commercial Sector |
| Additional provisions laid out in the Act mean that from April 2018 landlords of commercial properties will be required to bring their property up to the minimum energy efficiency threshold set (the intention is for this to be set at EPC rating 'E')before it can be re-let. |
| This requirement is subject to there being no upfront financial cost to landlords. Landlords will have fulfilled their requirement if their properties have either reached “E” or they have carried out the maximum package of measures funded under the Green Deal and/or ECO (even if this does not take them up to an ‘E’ rating). |
| Certain types of properties may be exempted from the Private Rented Sector requirements. These exemptions will be consulted upon as part of the secondary legislation prior to the 2016 and 2018 deadlines. |
| More information regarding The Green Deal scheme can be found at: |
| http://www.decc.gov.uk/assets/decc/legislation/energybill/1010-green-deal-summary-proposals.pdf |
