This month’s soapbox is by a guest author, Catrin Maby of Severn Wye Energy Agency, with a plea to ensure SMEs are at the heart of the Green Deal and the funding and subsidy structures that will support it.

She argues that the national energy retrofit can’t possibly work separately from the mainstream work people are already doing on buildings. But to integrate energy upgrades into building work, we have to integrate the construction sector into the Green Deal, and into all the advice and funding support out there. Catrin has first-hand experience of a model where that integration has been successfully achieved, and she sees no reason it shouldn’t work everywhere.  To read more visit https://aecb.net/news/category/soapbox/.