Government lavishes over £400,000 on PR for Green Deal
Figures released to Sky News under the Freedom of Information Act show that the government spent £413,815 on PR consultants to promote its Green Deal initiative.
The lavish spending works out at £1,889 for each household which has had energy efficient measures installed. The Green Deal has so far been implemented in only 219 properties with another 1,173 committed to take part.
The government paid £350,155 to PR agency Freud in 2012/13 and £63,660 in the first eight months of 2013/14. The Green Deal involves an assessment to calculate the savings a household could make through energy efficiency. The customer repays the cost of the new measures in the form of a loan paid through higher energy bills. The government claims that the savings should cover the expense of the repayment.
A spokesman for the Department if Energy and Climate Change said:
The benefits of making properties more energy efficient, in terms of warmer homes and lower bills, are clear to everyone.
The Green Deal is one way which households can finance energy efficiency measures and over 100,000 people have already had a Green Deal assessment. Research shows that over 80 per cent of those people have already had or intend to have at least one energy saving measure installed.