Is the new “Green Deal” really good for home owners?

According to the earth “environment” section of the Telegraph website, in an article entitled “Environmental Preview of 2011” it surprisingly asserts that “The ‘greenest government ever’ has an opportunity to live up the title while climate change will be back in the spotlight as hope grows once again for a global deal.”. Anyway time will tell, but I have to own up to being a little sceptical given the massive Government cutbacks and an economy that is barely growing, plus the environmental, political and financial cost of building new wind farms is enormous and not to be underestimated.

The article on the Telegraph website suggests that “The ‘new green deal,’ that aims to make all homes more energy efficient, will be pushed through Parliament. This will enable households to take out loans from the council or supermarket to fit insulation or double glazing and pay back the money through savings on their energy bill. The Government is also looking at centralising the electricity market so that energy companies are forced to build more wind turbines and other renewable power generators in order to meet climate change targets.”

I can not see how “forcing” companies is going to work. Who is going to enforce it? The UK Government is not meeting its own carbon emission targets, so seems to want UK home owners to help meet it’s own commitments to reduce carbon emissons by “encouraging” them to go into debt, the very thing they say we should not do! If we do genuinely want to reduce our carbon footprint, then I suggest it should be done within our means, as any “savings” on energy bills are not easy to quantify, plus all relative, if as predicted, energy costs soar, leaving thousands more in the UK in fuel poverty.
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