Discussion paper suggests offering extra cash-back rewards for customers who take-up a Green Deal

The government is considering offering extra cash-back rewards for customers who take-up a Green Deal as a community or group, as a means of encouraging adoption of the scheme.

The incentives would be financed with part of the £200m fund set aside to support the launch of the scheme, which the chancellor announced in autumn last year.

A discussion paper published by the Department of Energy and Climate Change said: “This is intended to encourage the development of community buying groups, which could benefit from economies of scale as well as the increased cash-back being offered.”

The scheme would work by attaching a cash-back payment to each Green Deal measure installed with payments accumulating up to an overall cap, which is yet to be set.

Neil Cutland, director of Cutland Consulting, said the proposals were a “very sensible idea”.

“The two things that really drive energy efficiency forward are legislation and grant support,” he added.

The paper also set out options for how people would claim their cash-back rewards, either through the Green Deal provider or independently.

But the government said it was keen to minimise the number of steps in the customer journey when taking up a Green Deal.

The government said it expected the extra incentive pot to last until up to March 2014.