Incentives needed to make people go green

Posted: 07 Nov 2007 10:52:10 GMT

A large number of British homeowners are not prepared to pay for green improvements to their properties despite supporting environmentally friendly initiatives.

A large number of British homeowners are not prepared to pay for green improvements to their properties despite supporting environmentally friendly initiatives.

Research by Norwich & Peterborough (N&P) reveals that 89 per cent of Brits support government plans to make all new homes carbon-neutral but 19 per cent said that they would not add green features to their own home.

Of these, 46 per cent said that the cost of green technology was the main reason that they would not invest.

Richard Lloyd is the managing director of Hockleys Professional and one of the judges for N&P's Eco Self-Build competition, he said that more needs to be doen to encourage homeowners to go green.

"Although it is encouraging that people are happy to back the government's zero-carbon homes commitment, it's sad to see that they're not so keen to make a difference using their own properties," commented Mr Lloyd.

"It's great that the government is making steps to cut the UK's carbon-dioxide emissions, but we'd really like to see more being done to encourage individuals to make changes to existing housing too, such as removing VAT on energy-efficient home improvements, or reducing council tax for properties with a high energy-efficiency rating," he continued.

The government recently pledged to make all new homes carbon-neutral by 2016.

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