RICS has called on member expertise and experience to provide a response to the consultation from the Department for Energy and Climate Change into Green Deal and Energy Company Obligation policies.

RICS members will be involved with the installation of energy efficient measures at all levels and members will be engaged in projects that are considering investing in energy efficiency.

The Energy Act 2011 made provisions for the development of a Green Deal and a new Energy Company Obligation (ECO) to replace the existing Carbon Emissions Reduction Target (CERT) and the Community Energy Saving Programme (CESP), which will both expire in 2012. The detailed policies of the ECO are to be implemented in secondary legislation and under the energy licensing framework.

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The Green Deal is a market led framework that will allow individuals and businesses to make energy efficiency improvements to their buildings at no upfront cost. The Green Deal requires a finance mechanism that will allow access to the finance needed for the improvements with repayment, in instalments, attached to the electricity bill.

Interconnected with the delivery of the Green Deal is the ECO. ECO will place one or more obligations on energy companies requiring them to generate a specific amount of credit by facilitating the installation of energy efficiency measures in homes in Great Britain before a set deadline. ECO has been designed to fit within the Green Deal framework and provide support, in the domestic sector, where Green Deal finance alone is not enough.

(GK)