Danny Alexander, chief secretary to the Treasury, committed the new cash with the aim of encouraging early adopters to take up the energy efficiency scheme and to give confidence to business.
The Treasury will pump the cash into a special time-limited ‘introductory’ offer to boost the early take up of the Green Deal to help it get off to a flying start.
Details of how this funding will be used will be announced next year as the Government assesses how best to stimulate early take up.
Energy and Climate Change Secretary Chris Huhne said: “This big injection of Government funding delivers on our promise to ensure the Green Deal hits the ground running, and make it as attractive as possible so that people start to benefit from day one.”
Huhne revealed for consultation on Wednesday details of the Green Deal.
From October 2012, it will enable homeowners to take a loan to install insulation or other energy-saving measures.
- The Government hopes the Green Deal will kick start around £14bn of private sector investment over the next decade – with new safeguards to help small family firms as well as big high street names get involved in the Green Deal. The Green Deal could support at least 65,000 insulation and construction jobs by 2015.
- Every British home and business will be able to install packages of energy saving technologies such as insulation at no upfront cost with repayments made over time out of the energy savings. Strict standards will be put in place to prevent consumers being ripped off by cowboys.
- Energy companies are required to provide support with an estimated value of £1.3bn a year to ensure everyone is able to benefit from the Green Deal – no matter their income or the type of house they live in. Additional help will be available to ensure the fuel poor get better boilers and fix draughty homes while subsidy will also be provided to help tackle homes that are hard to insulate, including solid wall homes.
