46
FEBRUARY 2015 PRO INSTALLER
PRO BUSINESS
www.proinstaller.co.uk
CONCERNS OVER ECO2 PLANS
The Electricity and Gas
(Energy Company Obligation) Order 2014 (the
‘ECO2 Order’) sets out
the requirements for
ECO2. As administrator
of the scheme, Ofgem
will publish guidance for
energy companies, and
are consulting on changes to the scheme where
they are exercising their
discretion in administering new legislative
provisions, or where
they are making further
improvements to their
current ECO policies.
As part of the stakeholder
engagement for this consultation, Ofgem has invited
expressions of interest for a
number of workshops that
ran from the 5th January
2015 and 12th January
2015. Each session featured
an introductory presentation on the full list of
changes.
Nigel Rees commented:
“Though the extension is
welcome it is quite unbelievable that replacement
windows are not included
as a discussion topic in the
workshops and are clearly
not in the plans for change
within the scheme.
“This is more frustrating
for our industry because
currently under ECO the
only windows that qualify
for the scheme are single
glazed. How can fuel poverty be properly addressed
when those suffering the effects are unable to upgrade
their inefficient double
glazing which may be decades old? The GGF intend
to write to Ofgem.”
In the letter, the GGF will
outlined its support for the
proposed requirements
GREEN DEAL
CONTINUES TO
DISAPPOINT
The GGF continues to be disappointed with slow progress of
Green Deal and Energy Company
Obligation (ECO) following the
release of the latest statistics,
which continue to show how the
scheme is not working for the
replacement window industry.
‘The scheme still has
not taken off as quickly
as originally promised’
The latest Green Deal and ECO statistics, giving details on the Green Deal
(GD) up to the end of December 2014
and the Energy Company Obligation
(ECO) up to the end of November
2014, show a decrease in the number
of Green Deal Assessments in December.
The scheme still has not taken off
as quickly as originally promised by
former DECC Minister Greg Barker and
has been tainted with bad press recently with reports that consumers have
had to wait for promised cashback
payments that fail to materialise.
However, following on from the
£100m that Energy and Climate Change
Secretary Ed Davey secured from the
Treasury, the Green Deal Home Improvement Fund (GDHIF) is said to be
secure and the DECC continue to say
that it is offering consumers access to
energy efficiency measures and helping them to reduce their household
energy bills.
for ECO for the obligation period 2015-2017 and
welcomed moves towards
ensuring energy efficiency
targets are met and households pay less in energy
bills.
However, the GGF emphasised the important role
glazing plays in the efficiency of homes, highlighting
that up to 23% of a home’s
heat energy can be lost
through inefficient windows
and urged that a whole
house approach should be
applied to make a home
more energy efficient.
In addition, the GGF
recommended that glazing
forms part of the provisions
for ECO where possible
and that Ofgem should
include energy efficient
windows as an eligible
primary measure under the
Carbon Emissions Reduction Obligation (CERO).
Nigel Rees, GGF Group
Chief Executive commented: “The installation of
energy efficient glazing
plays an important role in
helping to create more energy efficient housing, and
given its many benefits, the
GGF believes that energy
efficient glazing should be
incentivised further in Government schemes.”
The GGF will continue
to closely follow further
developments within the
ECO scheme and related Government energy
efficient schemes to ensure
Members are kept fully up
to speed with any changes
that may impact on their
business.
Increasing Awareness of
the Glazing Industry
The GGF, for the third
consecutive year, has
committed to supporting the Trading Standards Institute (TSI) Annual Conference and
Exhibition, which this
year will take place
on 29th June to 2nd
July 2015 at Bournemouth International
Centre.
This event is one of
the highlights in the TSI
calendar with over 1000
Trading Standard Officers
attending and over 50 exhibitors including Which,
BBC and British Retail
Consortium.
Brian Smith, GGF Director of Home Improvement, commented, “It is
important for the GGF to
have a presence at the TSI
Conference and Exhibition, not just to raise
our profile with Trading
Standards Officers but also
to highlight and explain
our work in helping our
Members, the industry and
homeowners.”
Last year, the GGF
presented on the consumer issues affecting our
industry in particular the
Consumer Right Directive
and the incoming Consumer Right Bill. For 2015,
the GGF has booked a
mini-theatre slot and the
presentation will be, “Shattering the Double Glazing
Myth”, focusing on how
the glazing industry has
cleaned up its reputation
since the 1980s with better products, technological
advances, more professional workmanship with
the help of trade organisations such as the GGF.
James Lee, Head of
Group Marketing and
Communications, added,
“Exhibiting and presenting
at this event will further
strengthen our relationship with Trading Standards Institute. In addition
to increasing awareness
of the GGF to Trading
Standards Officers, we will
also be raising the GGF’s
profile to many other consumer facing organisatio