When the Government’s new Green Deal launches, it may enable tenants and homeowners to carry out improvements to their homes to make them more energy efficient, more comfortable and cheaper to run but without the need to pay for the work upfront.

Under the Green Deal, homeowners will employ an authorised assessor to carry out an energy assessment on their home.  The assessor will identify work that can be carried out to improve the energy performance of their home and the work is then carried out through a Green Deal provider and installer.

The homeowner will pay for the improvements over time through their electricity bill, at a level which will be no greater then the estimated savings to their energy bills. If the house is sold, the Green Deal stays with the property and the repayments pass to the new bill payer.

To help local builders and architects understand more about how the Green Deal works, Sussex Building Control – in partnership with the South East Centre for the Built Environment (SECBE) – is running a half day workshop on Wednesday 3rd October at the Civic Hall in Crawley from 9am -1pm.

James Walker from B&Q’s eco innovation team will provide an overview of the Green Deal, Sussex Building Control will take his audience through case studies of retrofit properties and Julian Carter from SECBE will host a question and answer session which will help to demystify the Green Deal. This event will be of interest to architects, planners, consultants, surveyors, designers and builders who carry out refurbishments to existing homes.

For a copy of the programme or for more information please email vanessa.good@horsham.gov.uk

Sussex Building Control helps hundreds of local residents complete structurally safe and energy efficient projects each year. Please visit http://www.horsham.gov.uk/environment/BuildingControl.aspx to find out more. Alternatively call 01403 215151.