Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Rehman Chishti and Chris Huhne

Thursday 16th December 2010 Commons Chamber

[Chris Huhne]

I am happy to answer the hon. Lady, because her question is based on a misunderstanding of the green deal. There is no requirement for anybody to take out personal finance to fund the green deal. The whole point is that finance will be provided for the householder. The company that provides the finance will recoup its return from the householder’s savings on their energy bills. In addition, we will reshape the carbon emissions reduction target and community energy saving programme obligations on energy suppliers into an eco-obligation, one of the key objectives of which will be to provide additional support to those in fuel poverty. Such people will therefore be able to go ahead with the green deal, even if the anticipated savings on their bills are not adequate to pay for the installation.

[Rehman Chishti (Gillingham and Rainham) (Con)]

T8. When does the Secretary of State expect green deal finance to be extended to microgeneration?

[Chris Huhne]

The coalition agreement anticipated that we might extend green deal finance to microgeneration. We are working on the assumption that green deal finance will be available for insulation measures, because we have secured outstanding incentives for microgeneration through the feed-in tariffs, as was confirmed in the comprehensive spending review. Green deal providers will offer microgeneration proposals precisely because the incentives are so good.