Energy and Climate Change CommitteeWritten evidence submitted by Hampshire Country Council
Hampshire County Council has addressed each of the specific questions raised by the Call for Evidence below.
We welcome the fact that the Energy and Climate Change Select Committee will be taking on a watching brief, as we recognise that it is important the progress and success of the Green Deal are monitored. We feel that both access to depersonalised energy consumption data from energy companies, and an emphasis on how the success of the Green Deal could be understood via evidence of market growth will be of particular importance.
We also have also recently conducted market research focussing on Hampshire residents views of the Green Deal, as a concept and product and are happy to share headline information from this to help create a baseline for expected uptake of the Green Deal.
What is the best way of assessing the level of uptake of the Green Deal?
A. Market Research to Contribute to Baseline
Hampshire County Council have recently utilised a market research consultant to provide a quantitative assessment for the opportunity of a Green Deal programme in Hampshire. A full report on this is due to be finalised in early January. We would be happy to share headline information from this to help create a year zero baseline for potential uptake of Green Deal measures, that actual take up could be assessed against.
The core aspects of the market research are as follows:
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A representative sample of over 1000 Hampshire residents were interviewed (not including residents of the unitary authorities of Portsmouth and Southampton).
B. Other thoughts on the best way of assessing the level of uptake
Our area based insulation scheme “Insulate Hampshire”, which has delivered measures to over 13,000 households, employed a comprehensive monitoring package to assess uptake of measures.
The contracted Managing Agent recorded numbers of assessments, referrals and measures installed (along with associated information on the customer journey, complaints and compliments, reasons for cancellations etc), which was updated on a weekly basis. We were able to monitor this and provide statistics on a weekly, monthly, or quarterly basis, dependent on audience, and on what specific trends we were assessing. A similar centralised approach for the Green Deal would be desirable for assessing uptake.
There would also be benefit to mapping the geographical locations of confirmed Green Deal plans (depersonalised), so as to map physical take up. Please see final question.
The County Council’s experience suggest that particular effort is required in generating uptake of energy efficiency measures in “harder to reach” groups in the community, for example Super-Priority householders under the previous CERT regime. As such, analysis of the level of uptake should not just be concentrated on overall numbers, but according to different socio-economic groupings, so as to understand uptake in rural communities, private tenants, young families, areas of multiple deprivation etc.
What is the best way of assessing the level of energy savings being delivered by the Green Deal?
Hampshire County Council feel that it is vital to secure depersonalised data from energy companies to assess the energy use patterns of households who have taken up a Green Deal, so as to understand the true level of energy savings over a period of time. As such it would be extremely beneficial to begin consultation with energy companies as to how and when this may be provided, particularly as there may be cost implications.
Installation of smart meters alongside the Green Deal would be a particularly useful development, allowing the most detailed/accurate analysis of energy savings that have been accrued. At the present time, smart meters are not due to become compulsory for a number of years, but could be vital in generating a comprehensive understanding of energy savings from individual Green Deals.
Analysis of energy savings must factor in behaviour change as a result of measures installed under the Green Deal, and be able to make judgements on whether behaviour change is occurring as desired.
Where possible, this would need to factor in any changes to the householders (ie occupants move out, new occupants take on Green Deal) and also potentially involve contacting a random sample after a set period of time, for example a year to understand any other changes to the household that might have impacted on energy use (extra numbers in household, ie new children, lodger etc).
Weather patterns might also be assessed, to factor in what impact this may have had upon energy use, particularly with residents who have not yet opted for a Green Deal used as a comparator (ie what was the impact of a cold winter upon energy use for each of them).
What is the best way of assessing the carbon savings being delivered by the Green Deal?
Energy suppliers will be obliged to understand and report on carbon savings as part of their duties under the Energy Company Obligation (ECO). The methodologies used could be adapted to measure carbon savings delivered by the Green Deal. It is not neccesarily energy suppliers who should report on this for the Green Deal however, as responsibility would appear to lie with Green Deal Providers.
As with the above, the energy companies should be able to provide depersonalised data on energy use from households that have taken up a Green Deal over a period of time, which can be used as a basis to calculate long-term actual carbon savings. However this could be forwarded to Green Deal Providers for actual reporting purposes (again, cost implications will have to be negotiated).
Assessment of carbon savings is something that appears to have been overlooked in development of the Green Deal and Hampshire County Council recommend that reporting procedures could be developed as a priority not just for the watching brief of the Select Committee, but for the Green Deal in general.
This could have an additional benefit in that data may also be able to form the basis of any future approaches to tackling behaviour change.
What is the best way of assessing whether the Green Deal is delivering value for money to consumers?
An annual “baseline” commercial price could be assigned to different types of measure under the Green Deal, based on consultation with relevant trade associations. The actual cost of measures being delivered could then be measured against this. Regional variations would need to be built in, because of differences in the cost of labour etc.
There would again need to be a true understanding of energy use patterns over a period of time, to assess whether the Green Deal is then delivering value for money against it’s own interest rates. Again, depersonalised data supplied by the energy companies could be used to inform this.
It will be important to factor an analysis of rising energy prices into this equation too, to understand the true nature of savings accrued via the Green Deal, but also the true remaining cost of energy to the householder after the Green Deal.
There would also again be a requirement to understand changes in a household over time, such as the impact of new owners, or additional tenants or children in a household may have upon the value for money that is accrued from the Green Deal.
In terms of Value for Money, there may also be a case for assessing the value that the Green Deal provides to the economy as a whole (is the Green Deal contributing to economic growth?) or for value for money it generates via overall national carbon and energy savings that are generated.
Finally it should also be assessed as to whether the interest rate paid on a Green Deal is offering value for money in comparison to the variable interest rates available on the market from financial service providers and other loans over time. There is a tie-in here with consumers seeking other routes to market (ie installing energy efficiency improvements in the home but not via a Green Deal) as it may be that the interest rate on a Green Deal does not offer the best value for money compared to another product (for example taking out a loan to pay for energy efficiency improvements up front). The issue of alternative routes to market is discussed again in our answer to the question “What is the best way of assessing whether everyone who wants to is able to access the Green Deal?”
What is the best way of assessing whether the Green Deal is being effectively delivered?
As it has often been emphasised that the Green Deal will be market driven, understanding of this question should be market based. As such analysis of the numbers and trades of the ongoing registration of Green Deal Providers and accredited installers and assessors could be utilised to understand whether there is market growth.
Effective delivery of the Green Deal also relates to the customer journey. For example it may be useful to understand the amount of visits to a household that are required as part of the installation of the average Green Deal, or how many people enter the process without ending up taking on a Green Deal, or choose to fund improvements in another way, so are technically not taking out a Green Deal loan.
It was also ultimately be useful to understand whether the Green Deal is delivering measures that lead to actual savings (tied in with the responses to the above question) to ensure that process is consistently delivering the right outcome for householders. Of particular importance here is the level to which the Green Deal effectively delivers behaviour change, on which there should be emphasis on Green Deal Providers to ensure.
What is the best way of assessing customer satisfaction with the Green Deal?
The County Council has experience of assessing customer satisfaction through Insulate Hampshire, and has utilised the suggestions laid out below to actively engage with residents.
It is important that the Green Deal customer journey is as clear as possible—both for residents and for those providing the plan (providers, installers, assessors, etc). It is key that householders have easy access to comment upon their satisfaction with services received, for example via free-phone telephone numbers, simple web-links, freepost addresses. This is important, as even if only a small percentage of householders utilise it, clear trends can be identified, particularly any recurring issues with Green Deal delivery.
There should also be capacity to contact a random sample of customers from across the market to follow up on their experience, and customers should be invited to confirm whether they will be happy for an ombudsman to potentially contact them. Customers can “score” aspects of their experience (for example out of 10) and can also be invited to give comments, which can be monitored for keywords to help identify trends. This data [feedback] could also be used in assessing the ongoing registration of providers, assessors and installers. There may be possibilities to interface with, or learn from similar existing mechanisms that have already been established, such as the checks Gas Safe run on household gas installations.
It is vital that data protection is considered in any analysis of how the Green Deal works for it’s customers. Organisations working at any stage of the Green Deal should be able to produce evidence of their data protection procedures, and random checks that procedures are effectively utilised may also be beneficial. Any organisation should be able to clearly state whether it is a Data Processor or Data Controller under data protection legislation.
What is the best way of assessing whether everyone who wants to is able to access the Green Deal?
Again, analysis of this could be market lead, for example it could be assessed how many Green Deal providers are registering and what their geographical coverage is.
In a similar fashion, mapping the geographical locations of confirmed Green Deal plans would map the physical take up. This data (depersonalised) could be made freely available to be overlaid with other data such as indices of multiple deprivation, known areas of solid wall properties, etc for use by local authorities to monitor take up whilst helping to underpin work on the same.
In this analysis the Green Deal must also be considered alongside other routes to the market in energy efficiency. The Green Deal is one option for the consumer and access to it should be considered alongside access to, and take-up of other energy efficiency products and solutions. If someone has taken another route to the market was this because it offered better value for money, or was it because they did not know about the Green Deal, or about how to access it?
January 2013