The CBI has published Consumer demand – the key to a sustainable energy efficiency market. This follows on from a roundtable discussion in which AMDEA, as a CBI member involved in energy issues, was invited to participate.

The discussion was around the options for replacing the UK’s most recent energy saving policies, the combination of the Energy Company Obligation (ECO) and the Green Deal.

These replaced the earlier CERT and CESP schemes which were themselves variations on previous policies requiring energy suppliers to help their customers to reduce their energy use.

The key obstacle to the anticipated savings via the Green Deal was a lack of enthusiasm among consumers for borrowing at relatively high interest rates to pay for energy saving measures. It was suggested that this reluctance has been exacerbated by offers for loft insulation becoming ever more generous as energy companies were faced with missing their targets.

AMDEA of course has argued for financial incentives to persuade consumers to upgrade their appliances to more energy saving models. Regrettably, there have always been easier ways for energy companies to achieve their targets but maybe now is the Time to Change.