The government has injected a £34m loan into the Green Deal Finance Company (GDFC) to ensure it continues to trade next year as the industry struggles to take off despite the perceived benefits to the economy and householders.


The GDFC has an essential role to play in issuing loan and administering the finance plans to pay for the energy efficiency projects carried out on householders properties under the government’s Green Deal scheme. In September the company’s chief executive Mark Bayley warned that it “could be wound up” due to a lack of funding, which had caused significant ripples in the industry over the long term viability of the energy efficiency market.


The loan from the Department of Energy and Climate Change is to replace the £125m credit facility the company had from the Green Investment Bank which was due to expire shortly.


Bayley said the DECC money which viewed alongside the existing funding provided by private investors such as British Gas, EDF and Scottish Power meant the GDFC now had strong backing.


He added: “We are glad that our Green Deal providers now have even more certainty that funding is in place.


“We are now also consulting our investors on our sensible step-by-step plan to enhance the pay-as-you-save model and increase its availability to a wide market. Our growth over the last three months shows the huge potential of our model”.


This must surely be good news for Green Deal Providers,  following recent announcements that October had seen a bigger than anticipated decline in the number of businesses acting in this area and should provide more confidence in the government’s long term commitments to their aims of improving the UK’s housing stock, much of which remain energy inefficient.