British Gas have abandoned thousands of UK housing stock by informing Green Deal Installers under the ECO obligation, that they can no longer fund their projects. British Gas, who is the industry leader for Energy Supply in the UK, informed thousands of homes and Green Deal Installers that they would no longer be eligible under the Energy Companies Obligation (ECO), as funding has been reduced.
This leaves an estimated 4 million homes cold and leaves the most needed homes in the UK with rising energy bills and colder homes. With over 30,000 elderly people dying each Winter due to poorly or badly insulated and leaky homes, it is time for the government to rectify this very simple problem.
The Energy Companies Obligation or ECO was designed to insulate the UK’s housing stock, which is amongst the leakiest properties in Europe. The ECO obligation would see Free grants given out to those homes that would qualify in the UK. However, these grants have now been pulled all together and British Gas has informed all those homes waiting and wanting cavity wall insulation and loft insulation that they will no longer receive their free grant.
There has been massive uproar in light of the recent Autumn Statement, as energy companies placed a lot of pressure on the government to not only extend the ECO obligation which means they have the same amount of properties to insulate, but they do not have to dip into their own pockets to pay for it. Extending the Eco obligation by two years, means that energy companies can take profits to pay for the insulated properties and people will have to wait a further two years to receive their free grants.
Not only have the energy companies been given a two year extension, they will also be granted an uplift on all carbon that they bank before March 31st. This means that not only do they have a two year extension, but they will also receive 1.6 times the carbon uplift, reducing the overall amount of carbon that they have to deliver to UK’s homes.
This deal brokered by the energy companies with the government, only suits the energy companies and means that politicians are once again singing to the tune of the super wealthy, and forgetting who they serve, the general public, who’s homes are some of the worst in Europe for Carbon Emissions.