The Green Deal is being held back by the lack of suitably equipped suppliers, not low demand, according to energy secretary Ed Davey.

Ed Davey in an interview with Building magazine earlier this month said there were not enough installers offering solid wall insulation. Wall insulation is a target area of the energy efficiency scheme. Nothing had been installed under the scheme at the last count. However, Davey insisted the number of assessments carried out – over 44,000 – was “probably more than most people expected.”

Now the National Insulation Association (NIA) has responded. Neil Marshall, Chief Executive of NIA has said: “There are currently over 500 Green Deal Registered SWI Installers and our industry carried out around 80,000 SWI installations under the previous CESP Scheme in 2012. SWI installations under the Green Deal and Energy Company Obligation stood at just 3,100 at the end of May 2013, an annualised equivalent of just 7,500 jobs in 2013! This is a huge drop in numbers.

“The lack of SWI uptake under the Green Deal and ECO is related to a lack of demand and not a shortage of supply. We would therefore urge DECC to seriously consider and act upon the proposals that the NIA and others have put to them to increase demand and thereby accelerate and significantly increase the levels of insulation activity in Green Deal and ECO.”

Steve Halcrow, executive director at FPDC agrees: “Many FPDC members have invested heavily in increasing external and internal wall insulation installation capacity to deliver services that improve energy efficiency of existing homes that DECC envisaged under the Green Deal.  But the ending of CESP and CERT has seen demand fall away.”