If the Labour government is serious about its warm homes programme it should copy overseas schemes and offer retrofitting finance.
The Green Finance Institute said in a recent report, retrofit finance could reduce bills in 675,000 homes if the government implimented rules used across Europe.
The report compares the UK’s green loan market with international counterparts including Ireland, Belgium and Germany. It identifies areas to scale up the unsecured green home loan market and support a more competitive green finance market.
If Labour is serious about its target it should create a a government-coordinated national programme, like Ireland’s Home Energy Upgrade Loan Scheme (HEULS).
Irish citizens can borrow between €5,000 and €75,000 per property at low interest rates for work to insulate and retrofit their homes. The GFI said something like that here, could support the retrofit of up to 675,000 homes per year, exceeding the Climate Change Committee’s recommended pathway by 175,000
The 23.3 million privately owned homes contributed to 20% of the UK’s greenhouse gas GHG emissions in 2022. The Warm Homes Plan is one of the key pledges made by Keir Starmer.
Ryan Jude, Built Environment Programme Director at the Green Finance Institute said: “By learning from successful international models on scaling up green home loan markets, the UK can quickly develop a government-backed scheme to significantly increase the number of energy efficient homes in the UK.”
