GGF writes to Prime Minister over ECO threat
Following the Prime Minister’s recent statement in Parliament last week that “We need to roll back some of the green regulations and charges that are putting up bills”, the GGF has written to the Prime Minister’s Office to outline the Federation’s concerns regarding the Government’s green initiatives.
The letter highlights that energy efficiency is the “only sure way” to protect households against rising bills in the long-term, and that rolling back ECO (Energy Company Obligation), which is designed to improve the energy efficiency of vulnerable and low income households and ‘hard to treat’ properties, would instead increase energy bills for these consumers and could have “severe consequences” for jobs and growth in the Glass and Glazing Industry.
In the letter, Nigel Rees, GGF Chief Executive urged Mr. Cameron to consider using additional incentives such as Stamp Duty rebates and Council Tax reductions to encourage uptake of the Green Deal, which could help reduce the cost of ECO.
Nigel Rees commented, “Green Deal is struggling to make any impact with poor uptake since its launch in January this year. However ECO is proving to be quite successful with over 200,000 measures already installed. To remove or reduce ECO would be a disastrous move for all concerned.”
In addition, the GGF highlight in the letter, that the Government should consider bringing energy efficient windows in line with other energy efficient products and cut the current VAT rate from 20% to the 5% rate.
Nigel added, “It’s hard to understand why energy efficient windows are not on the approved list of energy efficient products that qualify for the reduced tax rate of 5%, when you consider the amount of energy lost through inefficient windows and also the industry investment in technological innovations to increase energy efficiency.”
