Issue - meetings

To award the Domestic Energy Saving Service contract to Climate Energy Ltd to start in February 2015 for a two year period with the option to offer two one year extensions subject to successful service delivery.

A report was submitted to seek approval to enter into a contract with Climate Energy Ltd to deliver a Domestic Energy Saving Service.

Cllr Naylon had submitted a question in relation to this item:

I welcome the proposal to enter a contract with Climate Energy Ltd to deliver a Domestic Energy Saving Service.  As an early adopter of the Green Deal process I wanted to ask Cabinet about how the funding for householders wanting to get involved with Green Deal will be met

 When I arranged a Green Deal assessment a few years ago it cost me £150.  I'm assuming there is still the same need for this fee to be paid over to assessors.

Will this be paid on behalf of the householder?   Would Climate Energy Ltd be paying all the Green Deal fees across the Borough?

The Portfolio Holder responded to the question and thanked Cllr Naylon for her support for the proposed contract to deliver a Domestic Energy Saving Service.

As indicated in the report the Service would, where possible, use government and energy company funds to provide subsided energy improvements. The promotion of these grants to ensure residents are able to access them was a major objective of the scheme. Initially all customers would be offered comprehensive advice as to the most cost-effective option available to them to improve the energy efficiency of their dwelling. If they wished to take up any improvement measures a specialist energy surveyor would be required to visit and review the property resulting in the production of a report.

Where the improvements could be fully funded from grants the surveyor would provide an Energy Performance Certificate free of charge. It was expected that this would be the case for the majority of customers. However, where a customer was required to use their own funds and wished to apply for a Green Deal loan, the surveyor would need to produce a more detailed Green Deal Plan.   

The cost of preparing a Green Deal Plan could be up to £150.  Climate Energy, the service provider, had agreed to subsidise this and the cost would be £49.  This, they suggest, would not deter genuinely interested customers but would reduce the risk of undertaking costly abortive surveys. 

The Leader expressed his thanks for the report.

Resolved:

To award the Domestic Energy Saving Service contract to Climate Energy Ltd to start in February 2015 for a two year period with the option to offer two one year extensions subject to successful service delivery.