Comments on: The Golden Rule

By: Mike Green

Mike Green — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 20:57:51 +0000

I believe there are two types of people out there – people who ARE interested in the problems of climate change and those who genuinely couldn’t care less.
The concept of paying those in the first group a subsidy is absolutely sound – eg on solar panels, which are ultimately paid for through the green levy on utility bills.
Sometimes, the only way to make people change their ways is to hit them where it hurts – right in the pocket. Scrap the Golden Rule – increase the green levy to whatever percentage is required and you’ll soon have millions of green converts looking for ways to reduce their fuel bills !

By: John Barwise

John Barwise — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 16:12:19 +0000

I concur with most of the comments above. The finance mechanism is not the best – 7.5% when a small amount added to a mortgage would do it for much less.
But I have one specific question that desperately needs a conclusive answer. B&Bs – are they eligible for domestic GD or non-domestic GD? Before you answer please bear in mind that proprietors selling or leasing B&Bs use EPC not SBEM.
A B&B is a dwelling in every sense – the owners live in the dwelling and rents out rooms which are themselves a dwelling as prescribed in the English dictionary -i.e. a place to ‘dwell in’. There is no prescription of how long people ‘dwell’ – merely that they do ‘dwell in a place of residence’. A dwelling is defined in the the 2001 Census as a self-contained unit of accommodation.
The key aim of the Green Deal is to encourage people to improve the energy performance of buildings – domestic properties, however they are used are still domestic properties used only for domestic purposes – eating, sleeping and washing.
Common sense should prevail here. A B&B or small guesthouse is unlikely to want to do SBEM because it is more expensive than EPC and not appropriate for their domestic uses. And, because the scheme s entirely voluntary many thousands of B&Bs across the UK will not be contributing to the UK’s carbon budget commitments. And, because these ‘dwelling’s consume far more energy than the average household that omission would be a significant loss to the mandatory carbon reduction commitments.

By: stuart

stuart — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 15:56:35 +0000

i think that the golden role is so important for goverment to make sure this is meet before any works take place as otherwise it will lead to many unhappy clients

By: Thomas Farquhar

Thomas Farquhar — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 15:26:09 +0000

we are seeing a great deal of high electricity usage applications who are looking at renewables under the Green Deal which should meet the golden rule. There has been a bit of negative feedback on renewables under the Green Deal but for some specific applications it should work very effectively, smaller domestic may be more difficult.

By: John Martin

John Martin — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 15:44:35 +0000

looks like this thread has died a death, but some interesting points remain unanswered and Frances Hunt makes a very valid point regarding integration of measures. is there an update on the golden rule and how it will work, many measures will fail to meet it and will require cash injection by the consumer which flies in the face of the ‘no up front cost’ ethos and key principal. be interested to hear current thinking on this key issue