Worcester, Bosch Group has tentatively welcomed the Government's new Green Deal Home Improvement Fund.
Head of government and external affairs at Worcester, Bosch Group, Neil Schofield, said: 'It is extremely encouraging to see the Government continue to invest in energy efficiency enhancements and the heating and hot water industry will do all it can to ensure this additional funding is put to good use. With this however, comes a frustration that installers remain excluded, which is a familiar story unfortunately.'
He continued: 'Despite the incentive looking very attractive at face value, installer buy-in is crucial, and we still find ourselves in a position where the vast majority of the nation's 130,000 well-qualified professionals, including Gas Safe & OFTEC-registered installers, are held back by red tape and the need for costly extra qualifications. DECC's insistence that Green Deal work is carried out by approved companies means this additional funding simply isn't accessible to the majority of homeowners, which is a huge frustration.
Since the launch of the additional funding, the omission of certain technologies from the line-up of qualifying technologies has also been questioned and this is a criticism that Mr Schofield believes is valid.
He said: 'The Minister's statement also points to the need to replace 'faulty' boilers, which ignores the value in upgrading a boiler operating at substandard efficiency. Combine this with the absence of oil-fired boilers from the list of qualifying technologies and we have a significant shortfall in the Green Deal Home Improvement Fund. The boiler is a key element to the Green Deal as it can be used as a trigger for other energy saving measures.
'It would be fair to say DECC has made an oversight in not making certain technologies, such as oil-fired boilers, sophisticated controls and high-efficiency cylinders eligible for funding. The omission of oil-fired boilers in particular rules out a Government-funded boiler upgrade for almost a million homes in rural England and Wales, which could prove to be a missed opportunity.'
