The Government can still have a home energy efficiency revolution but only by using the Green Investment Bank to help deliver the Green Deal, said the Federation of Master Builders (FMB) in response to new announcements about the world's first bank focused on greening the economy.

Our homes contribute 27% of the UK's total carbon emissions and 85% of our homes will still be standing in 2050 when the UK is under a legal obligation to have reduced carbon emissions by 80%.

The Green Deal is the Government's flagship policy designed to reduce carbon emissions from the domestic sector, but the Green Deal finance offer must be made more attractive to householders, and more freely available if it is to achieve the desired results.

Richard Diment, Director General of the FMB said: "The FMB is one of a number of organisations including businesses, trade associations and NGOs that wrote to the Chancellor prior to the Budget asking for the Green Investment Bank to be used to help make the Green Deal a success. The Deputy Prime Minister and Business Secretary have now confirmed the Government is looking at the potential for using the bank in this way which is a step in the right direction but it is essential that they recognize how important the Green Investment Bank is going to be if we are to have any chance of meeting future domestic energy needs."

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Mr Diment continued: "If the Green Deal is to complete 14 million upgrades by 2020 the work will need to be completed at the rate of about 1.75m homes per annum; this is around 33,000 per week or nearly 4,800 per day. To do this the government will need to do more to stimulate client demand, and will need to drastically increase the number of Green Deal finance providers. The Green Bank can do both."

The FMB said the Green Investment Bank has the potential to lower the cost of finance and to create a greater choice of Green Deal providers and this would create greater savings for consumers, incentivize uptake, and make more energy efficiency measures cost-effective. Mr Diment concluded: "The involvement of small and medium sized contractors will also be essential to the successful delivery of an ambitious programme of energy efficiency retrofits. Therefore, the Green Investment Bank should be used to make low cost Green Deal finance more widely available."

(CD/BMcC)