Mayor of London Boris Johnson has said he does not expect the closure of the Green Deal to impact on his plans to boost energy efficiency in the capital.
The Mayor has sought to rapidly increase energy efficiency measures in London through the London Assembly’s RE:NEW and RE:FIT programmes, which work alongside businesses and public buildings and houses in order to retrofit efficiency technologies.
However most companies working under the RE:NEW and RE:FIT programmes in the capital were also Green Deal-associated contractors, and Assembly member Murad Qureshi submitted a question to the Mayor last week over whether or not the Conservative government’s closure of the Green Deal would affect his targets.
“The failure of government to listen to its critics over the past five years has put back the delivery of energy efficiency measures across the UK,” Qureshi added.
Johnson responded by stating that he did not expect the Green Deal’s closure to “have a significant direct impact on my energy efficiency plans”, but also revealed that at the end of June 2015 London had just 106 Green Deal plans in action – 1% of the UK’s total.
While the scrapping of the Green Deal without an adequate replacement policy has been hugely contentious, there is broad agreement that the initiative failed in its attempt to stimulate investment in energy efficiency technologies and needed reworking.
Johnson was also questioned on the projected returns under the London Energy Efficiency Fund – a £100 million capital programme established to allow public or private sector companies to invest in energy efficiency – out to 2020.
His answers state that total returns over the next five years are expected to amount to £38.9 million – next year proving to be the most successful year with £12.6 million in returns – all of which is to be reinvested in other projects until 2018.
