Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Chris Huhne, confirmed yesterday that the government will adopt targets to halve carbon emissions by 2025, with a goal of reducing emissions by 60 per cent by 2030. With a quarter of the UK's emissions coming from energy use in our homes, and with the majority of the homes that will be in place in 2025 already built, there is clearly a greater incentive than ever for the Goverment to deliver on the Green Deal.

Such ambitious targets will require a lot of investment in each home, and for take-up of the scheme on an unprecedented scale. This immediately calls into question the desirability of a cap on the finance available per property, and places a further onus on Government to encourage homeowners to improve the energy efficiency of their homes through either incentives such as tax breaks, or through minumum standards (and possibly even a combination of both). A beefed-up Green Deal will also need to work effectively in tandem with other policies such as renewable energy feed in tariffs and the renewable heat incentive, which may now also require strengthening.

Both business and environmental organisations have long stated that in order to deliver the revolution in our homes that is intended, the Government must also include explicit targets for the Green Deal in the Energy Bill. The latest announcement makes the case for aggressive targets and bold policy-making stronger than ever.

The Government’s Energy Bill – which will provide the legislative basis for the Green Deal – was yesterday given an unopposed second reading in Parliament. Following the earlier announcement on the increased per-household limit for Green Deal finance, a real boost was given to the policy with the of additional regulations to be placed on the private rented sector -  which currently includes a high proportion of the UK’s least energy efficient properties. Under the new proposals, landlords will not be able to refuse “reasonable requests” from tenants to improve their property from April 2012, and will be banned from renting out properties with F and G energy efficiency ratings from April 2018. The announcements seem to be the Government’s first step in recognising concerns held by many that the level of take-up that the Green Deal will be low without additional incentives, and are great news for tenants that may previously have struggled to persuade their landlords to improve their homes. What remains to be seen is whether they will go further to offer further carrots (or sticks!) to encourage homeowners to get involved. Let’s hope so!