A chance to win a £10K eco home makeover for Brighton and Hove residents

5:30pm Friday 1st February 2013 in News

Ten residents are being offered the chance to have a £10,000 eco makeover of their home.

Brighton and Hove City Council is giving away thousands of pounds of home-energy improvements to each of ten lucky residents as part of its Green Deal Pioneer Places scheme.

Improvements installed for free could include new boilers, wall and loft insulation, secondary glazing and draught-proofing.

One hundred householders could also receive a free Green Deal energy assessment worth up to £150 to identify energy waste and indicate ways to save money on energy bills.

The project has been made possible after the council, working with partners Brighton and Hove 10:10, Low Carbon Trust and The Green Building Partnership recently applied for £221,000 of Government funding.

The scheme will be documented, following some of the ten householders as they have the home-energy improvement work done.

Flemmich Webb, the chair of Brighton and Hove 10:10, said: “This is fantastic news for residents.

“With energy bills increasing every year, it’s vital that we help people improve their homes so they waste less energy and cut their gas and electricity bills.”

Anyone interested in taking part should fill in an application form at www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/greendeal or call 01273 411143 before February 11.

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Comments(13)

mimseycal says...
7:41pm Fri 1 Feb 13

Hmmmm .... I'd be very careful before taking this on. According to some research some Social Housing landlords "are concerned that, because social housing is generally quite energy efficient, it will be harder for tenants to achieve the savings required to repay the loans after paying the green deal charge - potentially making fuel poverty worse."

Source: http://www.insidehou
sing.co.uk/eco/green
-deal-gets-frosty-re
ception/6525469.arti
cle

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Maxwell's Ghost says...
7:57pm Fri 1 Feb 13

.......an energy assessment worth £150.
That is the funniest thing I have read in a long time.

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leobrighton says...
11:37pm Fri 1 Feb 13

It must be illegal and at least discriminatory as only a selected few residents are getting this. Probably councillors or their families or most probably council employees. The rest of us can just go ---- ourselves as far as they are concerned.

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Maxwell's Ghost says...
10:02am Sat 2 Feb 13

I would like The Argus to find out why an Eco assessment is £150 and the qualification of the individuals doing it.
All you need is to go online and apply for an energy monitor for free and complete and online assessment via most energy suppliers and Governnent sites. £150????? Astonishing.
Come on tell us why the assessment is £150.

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redwing says...
10:25am Sat 2 Feb 13

With all the criticism of this highly dubious scheme elsewhere, you'd think a Green dominated council wouldn't be encouraging, but rather boycotting it!

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mimseycal says...
10:40am Sat 2 Feb 13

Ah but you forget ... there is funding they can bid for and you must admit that if there is one thing this Green council really likes doing ... it is bidding for funding. Never mind the long term consequences and let the devil take the hindmost.

Also it has the fascinating term 'Green' in the title ... can you just see those ideologically fired little eyes brightening up at the prospect ...

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Maxwell's Ghost says...
11:33am Sat 2 Feb 13

I always enjoy the phrase ......it's ok the money was EU funding.
Where on earth does the Green Party think this money comes from...the magic far away tree.

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FranJDH says...
8:10am Mon 4 Feb 13

All this cynical comment not surprising, there's lots of question marks over the coalition's Green Deal proposal. But it's all there is as any kind of public support for people to improve their houses (and so the quality of the UK housing stock) so it's not leaking energy at such an expensive rate.

I'm not Council or politician, just down the end of the food chain of energy upgrading work. Please don't troll me, I am just giving info, not selling.

As I understand it the money comes from Govmt for a test run of the Green Deal - fully funded, so free upgrades to ten houses & free Green Deal assessments for 100 others which could be used 'live' to get a loan for the work if wanted. This cash is offered by DECC (UK, not Euro) to a very limited set of projects nationally and the Brighton Council has gained one of them.

The GD assessments are that price because it is a full energy survey . It identifies not how much energy you are paying for, (of course you're only too aware to that), but why you are using it up & whether remedial work can be done to improve the situation. It's equivalent to a condition survey as you'd get for buying a house & is probably a day's work - one of the things being tested.
Whether the 'Green Deal' works in the end or not, this free offer has got to be a good deal for someone locally in return for the bother of having it done and a bit of follow-up monitoring.

These days surely any money brought into the city is a good thing, most of the time it's being taken away.

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mimseycal says...
8:52am Mon 4 Feb 13

Most free lunches carry a hidden price tag which generally is far higher then the price of a lunch 10+ times better then the one offered free.

So no, I wouldn't say that any money brought in to the city is necessarily a good thing. I'd want to know what strings were attached and what conditions need to be met; either now or in the future.

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fwebb10 says...
9:58am Mon 4 Feb 13

leobrighton wrote:
It must be illegal and at least discriminatory as only a selected few residents are getting this. Probably councillors or their families or most probably council employees. The rest of us can just go ---- ourselves as far as they are concerned.
Thanks for your comment. It's open to all Brighton & Hove residents though council tenants are not eligible for the up to £10,000 of refurbishments due to procurement rules Though they can have the survey). See the link below for how the scheme works and the eligibility criteria.

http://www.brighton-
hove.gov.uk/index.cf
m?request=c1275114

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fwebb10 says...
10:02am Mon 4 Feb 13

mimseycal wrote:
Hmmmm .... I'd be very careful before taking this on. According to some research some Social Housing landlords "are concerned that, because social housing is generally quite energy efficient, it will be harder for tenants to achieve the savings required to repay the loans after paying the green deal charge - potentially making fuel poverty worse."

Source: http://www.insidehou

sing.co.uk/eco/green

-deal-gets-frosty-re

ception/6525469.arti

cle
Just to be clear, Green Deal Pioneer Places, though related to the Green Deal, is not the Green Deal. The council is giving away up to £10,000 of home-energy improvements for free to each of 10 householders. It won't cost the householder anything and they won't have to take out a loan. So the Golden Rule to which you are referring above is not relevant in this case.

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mimseycal says...
10:09am Mon 4 Feb 13

It is all related though. If something is too good to be true, it is generally
because it is a large pot of leprechaun gold to deflect attention from the pit you are being drawn to.

Further, there is no such thing as a free lunch. A free lunch today has a price tag you will not be presented with till long after you have digested the sarnies ...

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fwebb10 says...
10:34am Mon 4 Feb 13

Maxwell's Ghost wrote:
I would like The Argus to find out why an Eco assessment is £150 and the qualification of the individuals doing it.
All you need is to go online and apply for an energy monitor for free and complete and online assessment via most energy suppliers and Governnent sites. £150????? Astonishing.
Come on tell us why the assessment is £150.
This is a Green Deal assessment carried out by an accredited Green Deal assessor, which is estimated to cost anywhere from between £80-£150 (hence up to £150) once the Green Deal gets going properly. See here http://bit.ly/VKwxHT for more details. Some Green Deal providers may even offer them for free. I think the assessment you are referring to is an EPC (Energy Performance Certificate), which is different to a Green Deal assessment.

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