"All (anyone want to bet that that's not true?) UK households will have a green makeover by 2030 under government plans to reduce carbon emissions and cut energy bills.
Cavity wall and loft insulation will be available for all suitable homes, with plans to retrofit 400,000 homes a year by 2015. Financial incentives for householders will also be available for low-carbon technologies such as solar panels, biomass boilers and ground source heat pumps, paid for by a levy on utility companies."
So is this all new? There seems to me to be little difference from any of the previous initiatives, none of which have proved to be particularly successful. There are a couple of points worth noting though:-Firstly, yet again, these are seen only as targets. Another all process initiative with little productive output other than the favoured box-ticking exercises?
Secondly, if you read it carefully, you will see that the funding is to be provided via a levy on the utility providers, which, as previous attempts at similar initiatives have shown, simply means that, in the end, we pay for it out of our own pockets anyway!
As my Granddad used to say years ago - 'You get nowt for nowt in this life'.
Let's hope that we genuinely get some real 'doing' this time, rather than the usual hot air, spin and target playing. I'll keep my fingers crossed, though I'm not particularly hopeful.
