Home Grants Restored for Wind Turbines

 

May 12 - Evening Standard; London (UK)

Thousands of homeowners are to be offered grants of up to Pounds 2,500 to install wind turbines and solar panels.

Trade and Industry Secretary Alistair Darling today announced that a scheme offering funds to householders, which was suspended this year, will start again on 29 May.

However, Londoners have been slow to apply for the awards, with only 204 on track to get grants totalling Pounds 534,800 so far. This compares with nearly 1,000 people in the South-East due to receive nearly Pounds 1.7 million, and almost Pounds 1.3 million committed to 837 projects in the South-West.

The scheme has been revived after firms supplying microgenerators, such as wind turbines and environmentally friendly boilers, voiced anger at its suspension.

Ministers had ordered a review amid concerns the idea was not working properly and was being hit by difficulties in getting planning consent.

The maximum grant has now been cut from Pounds 5,000 to Pounds 2,500, a monthly cap on awards has been removed, and planning permission is now needed before householders put in an application for a grant.

Applicants also need to meet criteria such as having loft and cavity wall insulation. Mr Darling said: "Micro-wind-turbines and solar panels are fast becom- ing the credible response of householders to cutting their carbon emissions as well as their utility bills." In New York later today, a British environment minister will call for companies to report on the action they are taking to save the planet just as they publish their accounts.

Ian Pearson will tell business chiefs firms should prepare "carbon accounts" measuring their impact on climate change. An international reporting system is being drafted by the Climate Disclosure Standards Board, set up in January at the World Economic Forum..

Energy report on buy-to-lets

LANDLORDS will have to pay for energy reports on their properties from October next year.

The Government will extend the need for energy performance certificates a key element of sellers' home information packs

to the rental sector. It will mean about 850,000 buy-tolet investors will have to pay around Pounds 200, perhaps every three years, for a certificate from an inspector. The property will be given an energy rating from A to G, with ways suggested to reduce its carbon "footprint".

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