21 February 2012: Angie Bray, MP for Central Ealing and Acton, has asked two Parliamentary Questions about the anticipated impact of the introduction of the Green Deal in London with regard to investment and jobs.
Angie Bray: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change how much private sector investment in energy efficiency in London he expects to result from the Green Deal. [94812]
Gregory Barker: The Department’s estimate of the level of Green Deal private finance is set out in the draft impact assessment published on 23 November 2011. The final impact assessment will be published in the spring. These figures are national and DECC has not carried out an assessment of the private finance requirement on a regional basis. The impact assessment can be seen here.
Angie Bray: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change how many jobs he expects to be created in London as a result of the Green Deal. [94813]
Gregory Barker: It is not possible to provide figures for the number of jobs that will be created in London. It is estimated that by 2015 the number of jobs in Great Britain as a result of the Green Deal and energy company obligation could be up to 65,000.
Reading the 200 page-plus Green Deal and ECO Impact Assessment (IA) is a pretty thankless task at the best of times, filled as it is with endless graphs and tables of the various scenarios envisaged by DECC’s modellers, but it’s particularly pointless at the moment as the Minister has previously stated – over a month ago – that the “Green Deal Impact Assessment is already out of date” (see Greg Barker’s response to George Monbiot at 11.04am).
It is difficult to see how many new jobs will in fact be created by the Green Deal as the Government anticipates in the IA a massive reduction in the number of insulation jobs with the introduction of this new flagship environmental programme. This has been picked up by a wide range of diverse commentators (UKERC, CBI, and most importantly a detailed response from the Committee on Climate Change) and many press articles (BBC and Guardian amongst others). However, maybe this will all change in the final IA to be published in the Spring…