October was the ‘milestone’ month for Green Deal according to Greg Barker, Minister for Energy & Climate Change (DECC). He was speaking at an All-Part Parliamentary committee on this very special government initiative, which aims to encourage private and social sector householders and landlords, to take full advantage of special funding arrangements and energy efficiency improvement solutions.
Green Deal ‘emerged’ modestly in early October but does not really get underway until January 2013! In the meantime, 
Mr Barker was able to report that its uptake in the social sector was ‘promising’ with around 60,000 housing association homes being appropriately renovated plus several thousand more were in the pipeline. In addition some 12 leading local authorities had also committed to undertaking home efficiency measures.
An optimistic Mr Barker suggested: “But you ain’t seen nothing yet”!
Yet it appears that the great majority of private homeowners remain unaware of Green Deal!
Mr Barker suggested, however, that it would ‘need thousands of renovated show homes’ to be available around our environment before householders saw the real advantage of home efficiency improvements. Because, without seeing the considerable advantages provided by Green Deal ‘they are not going to believe it!’
He also mentioned the £1000 cash-back that was available to householders who had had the energy-saving measures carried out.
He was particularly keen to make sure that all SMEs got a ‘fair deal’ in the whole Green Deal process and, indeed, a key priority was to ensure that smaller businesses ‘got a slice of the action!’
Mr Barker’s upbeat message was: “It’s exciting to see what’s happening, but really it’s only just the beginning.”
Among the organisations working closely with 
DECC is the Energy Saving Trust which has 34 experts fielding daily questions on Green Deal, mainly from the general public. It’s helpline is 0300 1223 1234.
More information: www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/