Four in five people 'never heard of green deal'

The green deal, which has been launched by the government to reduce emissions, is a foreign concept to thousands of Brits, new research has revealed.

In fact, a staggering four out of five people have not heard of the government's flagship green deal, which offers families various loans that will enable them to make energy efficient home improvements.

The YouGov poll of 5,071 energy customers found that 81 per cent had not yet heard of the green deal, which has already begun.

The deal works by lending homeowners the money to make energy efficiency improvements to their homes.

It is thought that the money they save on their bills will allow them to pay back the money that they have loaned.

Energy-saving improvements include: insulation - eg loft or cavity wall insulation, heating, draught-proofing, double glazing and renewable energy technologies - eg solar panels or wind turbines.

In addition, it is thought that the environment would be much better off, with a lot less pollutants being sent into the sky.

A YouGov poll of 5,071 energy customers found that 81 per cent had not yet heard of the green deal, which kicked off on Monday (January 28th).

Climate minister Greg Barker told the Guardian: "We're right at the beginning of the green deal journey, and the uSwitch report is right to identify there is relatively low consumer understanding around the green deal.

"It's as you'd expect, as it's yet to be rolled out. I expect that to change over the coming year."

However, although he is expecting slow changes, he is expecting it to be a dramatic alteration overall.

"Is this transformational? Yes? Is this the biggest home improvement programme since the second world war? Yes? Is it a sea change in how we tackle energy efficiency? Yes," he said.