mather marshall

Is the Green Deal really a Good Deal ?????

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 18 Jun 2014 12:21:00 +0000

Never look a gift horse in the mouth, as the saying goes....

However, we have been examining the mouth, hooves, tail and hind quarters of one particular government horse, and have concluded that it’s more a dodgy old mule.

Since the Green Deal, a policy to help householders make their homes more energy-efficient, began in January last year, only £4 million of the £125 million incentives the Government was offering for new boilers and extra insulation has been applied for.

A mere 1,200 homes have had measures installed, 18 months after the policy was launched. The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) was hoping for 10,000 in the first year alone.

It has been described as “disastrous”, “an abject failure” and “deeply disappointing” in sessions of the Energy and Climate Change Select Committee in its Green Deal inquiry. Now, the DECC hopes that further cashback offers of up to £6,000 for solid-wall insulation will renew interest.

Tim Yeo MP, the committee chairman, says that although the Green Deal is a “terrific idea”, the Government should consider incentives for houses similar to reduced road tax for low-polluting cars.

He suggests offering stamp duty rebates to people making energy-efficiency improvements within a year of moving house. “Similarly, people who buy homes rated E or F on the Energy Performance Certificate, and don’t make improvements, could face a surcharge,” he says.

The Green Deal has three main flaws: the interest rate, around 7 per cent, is too high; the debt is attached to the house, making resale problematic; and too often work is provided by faceless national firms, rather than trusted local builders.

But this doesn't mean that people aren't interested.
About 22,000 households each month are having Green Deal assessments, and there is anecdotal evidence that home owners are making improvements using their own finances.

This is what one client did recently.

After the hideous winter of 2012-13, when their Twenties house felt more like a morgue than a home, they considered a Green Deal package but decided the interest rate was too high. So put £10,000 on the mortgage, at a rate of 4.99 per cent, fixed for five years.

They installed a new boiler, extra solid-wall insulation, an insulated door between our north-facing porch and hall, secondary and double glazing, and insulated underlay and wool carpets on the ground floor. The work was done by a local builder.

Last week they received a letter from our energy provider. Not only had their gas usage fallen by 99 per cent, but they have been credited with £250 to compensate for direct debit over payments, and their monthly payments have fallen by £66 more than the extra we are now paying on our mortgage.

The measures they installed have made a huge difference not only to their bills, but also to the way they felt about their house.

Not everyone can add £10,000 to their mortgage, but that just makes the Green Deal’s 7 per cent interest rate even more outrageous by hitting hardest those who can’t find other, cheaper forms of finance.

When a policy is so demonstrably unfair, it’s time to go back to the drawing board.....................????

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 03 Jun 2014 16:48:00 +0000

Earlier this month Labour announced it was trying to force through an amendment to a Parliamentary Bill which would have drastically altered the rental market and could have resulted in tenants being left out of pocket.

Our view is

“Someone somewhere in Labour’s head office obviously decided that this week’s way to try and make Ed Miliband popular was to make it seem as if he stands up for the many who live in rented accommodation.

“Not a bad idea.

“But to force an amendment to the Consumer Rights Bill to ban letting agents from charging fees to tenants?

“Very bad idea.

“Letting agents compete on price and on the quality of their service."

“As a result, tenants choose to deal only with the agent that matches their expectations. The fact that most do rent property from reputable agents such as ourselves and the many others around the country indicates that tenants feel they gain value for money.

“After all, if they don’t want to use letting agents they could easily rent from the private ads. But they choose not to.

“I believe that this is because they see using a letting agent as a way of making sure the property and the landlord have been checked out, that any repairs or necessary maintenance will be carried out quickly and to a high specification, that an established complaints procedure is in place if problems arise – and that all parties to the agreement are properly protected under law.

“Ed Miliband’s team may not be cynically ticking the box to make sure they have appealed to renters.

“They may actually believe they are trying to do something to help. The simple fact is they are not.

“Letting agents provide a service that tenants are prepared to pay for. If we remove letting agents’ ability to charge for this service it raises an important question: what will happen?

“To my mind, we will see rents pushed up as agents look to offset the loss of tenants fees by charging landlords more – who then claim this back by upping the rents.

“The alternative is that letting agents have to lay staff off.

“I would not be against a proposal to cap letting fees to a percentage of the monthly rent. But Labour’s plan seems to be an idea thought up in desperate haste to try and win votes. The party would be of far more use if it took the time to talk to those in the industry.

“We have always called for a licensing system for agents. Such a scheme would give far greater protection to tenants and landlords than Mr Miliband has ever considered.

“His lumbering in with a last-minute, headline-grabbing change to a government Bill with the sole aim of grabbing publicity and future votes does little for anyone but the media profile of the Labour Party.

“We have to make sure long-term tenants’ rights are put before short-term political gain.”

Jeremey Godfrey

Mather Marshall Lettings

Was Labour right to try and scrap Lettings Fees for Tenants?????

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 03 Jun 2014 16:46:00 +0000