[Martin Sherring]

Nigel, presumably the issue you raise (about the measures working for a high-user family, but not for a lower-user family who succeeds them) would be dealt with through the price of the house – i.e. the low-user family would know about the Green Deal charge and would take that into account when they made an offer. At least it would in an ideal world, in reality I'm not sure how much people think about energy bills when they buy a house.

The biggest problem with the scheme seems to me that it just won't deliver. The fundamental idea was that this was going to unlock a huge new market for retrofit, but the research seems to indicate that people don't want a long-term financial obligation, so the only measures that will be taken up are the ones with quite fast pay-back. Meanwhile, there are extra costs being added in for the assessor and the finance, which mean the pay-back has to be even quicker.

[Martin Sherring]

We've just been to see a company in Glasgow, CCG, very impressive set up, so that's one option. They supply closed panel buildings with doors and windows fitted, and can also supply with services pre-fitted in the service void, also with lightweight external finishes, although at the moment we feel the latter two are a bit OTT. And they've doen a handful of Passive Houses in Scotland.

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