Eco living: a slow start for the Green Deal On the plus side, the more than 40,000 Green Deal assessments carried out this year suggests there is "phenomenal" interest among home owners in making their homes warmer, says Richard Griffiths of retrofit experts Parity Projects (parityprojects.com). Yet so far only four out of 40,000 have signed up for the loan to actually get the improvements done. So just what has gone wrong? Most critics blame the high loan interest rates - 7 to 8 per cent - leading once again to the suspicion that government policy is aimed at fleecing the public and lining the pockets of big business. I had an assessment carried out on my own home, which resulted in some helpful suggestions as to how I could reduce my gas bill. However, I have decided to borrow the money for the extra insulation on my mortgage at 2.99 per cent. It was a no-brainer. Luciana Berger, the shadow minister for climate change, said: "The Green Deal was billed as the biggest home-improvements programme since the Second World War, but only a handful of people have signed up. Thousands of insulation workers have lost their jobs and there's been a near total collapse in new cavity wall insulation since the scheme launched. The UK Green Building Council, representing the green building industry, spooked by the low take-up of Green Deal loans, held an emergency meeting on Monday to discuss how the deal can be saved. A report - drawn up by a task force of developers, environmental groups, the insulation industry and Green Deal providers and discussed at the meeting - suggests that tax incentives, either stamp duty rebates or council tax reductions for energy-efficient homes, could encourage more people to insulate their homes. Conversely, energy-inefficient homes will be penalised with higher council tax rates. Other European countries such as France already operate tax incentive schemes for energy-efficient homes. Architect Marion Baeli of Paul Davis and Partners (pauldavisandpartners.com), who specialises in retrofitting period properties, says urgent action must be taken. The UK has the oldest residential building stock in Europe. It is also the most energy hungry, in particular the Victorian housing stock. There are nearly five million houses from this era, and if they are not retrofitted properly they may end up being unaffordable and unhealthy to live in comfortably. She has calculated that on the current rate of increase in energy bills, a modest-sized uninsulated Victorian house could see fuel bills increase from £38 a week to £100 a week over the next 10 years, pushing thousands more families into fuel poverty. Already the National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux has recorded an increase in people seeking advice for fuel problems in the year 2012/13 compared to last year, escalating through the January to March period as the long, cold winter persisted. If the Government wants to avoid being held responsible for the expected sharp increase in winter deaths recorded last winter, it needs to sort out this well-intentioned yet catastrophically badly implemented policy - now. Send your questions to Sarah at Life, The Sunday Telegraph, 111 Buckingham Palace Road, London SW1W 0DT, asksarah@telegraph.co.uk