GBRC

The judges have met, the awards have taken place, now we can make it public: Henry Steedman, with his film ‘Janet’, has been announced as the winner of the Great British Refurb film competition by Kevin McCloud and the judging panel.

Well, things looked promising as sat down for our movie shortlisting session.

Last July, we published Tina’s blog on her eco-refurb project and on some trouble she had with getting planning permission. Now that this is all over, she is back to tell us about her project’s progress.

I recently joined Kevin McCloud and Greg Barker – Minister of State for energy and climate change – for a live webinar in which we were discussing the Green Deal, with the debate fed by questions from you. It was an interesting and stimulating discussion as if the Government gets it right, the Green Deal will not only provide an affordable way to renovate the UK's housing stock and make our homes less energy intensive, but it could also improve their aesthetic appeal, and mitigate sky high energy bills.

The premise of our televised online debate between the Energy Minister Greg Barker, Grand Designs front man Kevin McCloud and several leading industry representatives was "The Green Deal: One Year and counting".

Next week, on 9 November at 2.30pm, Kevin McCloud and Paul King (UK-GBC chief executive), will be joined by Greg Barker – Minister of State for energy and climate change – for  a live “webinar” in which they will be dissecting the Green Deal at your dictat.

Next year – after the UK Energy Bill is granted Royal Assent– there should be a finance mechanism by which homeowners could get energy efficiency measures – like insulation and heating systems – installed in their homes without paying any upfront costs. They will make repayments through the resultant savings to their energy bill savings. This mechanism is called Pay as You Save (PAYS) and is the central tenet of the Green Deal.