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Nationwide offering £20,000 to upgrade your home – interest free | Personal Finance | Finance

Matte Jr
Nationwide offering £20,000 to upgrade your home – interest free | Personal Finance | Finance

Nationwide homebuyers are receiving interest-free loans of up to £20,000 to make their homes more environmentally friendly and thus reduce energy bills.

Customers can borrow to install solar panels, air source heat pumps, window upgrades, new efficient boilers, insulation for double walls and partitions, and even an electric car charging point.

The deal is available to existing building society customers and while the money is being loaned, interest-free customers are required to repay it within two to five years.

Studies have shown enormous enthusiasm for home improvements aimed at reducing energy bills and carbon emissions; however, the large initial cost is a major barrier to getting the job done.

The 0% Green Additional Loan products, which need to be spent on improving the energy efficiency of a property, will allow mortgage holders across the country to borrow between £5,000 and £20,000 up to a maximum of 90 percent of the Loan- to-Value (LTV).

Nationwide was the first major lender to offer 0% green loans in June 20232, with the maximum limit set at £15,000. However, take-up has been very low, with just 1,900 applications completed from launch to the end of September 20243.

It hopes to increase take-up by increasing the maximum loan to £20,000 and making it easier for customers to borrow by removing the requirement for new customers to wait six months before they are eligible to apply.

Britain’s largest building society has published a new report titled “How low-cost finance supports the greening of homes in the UK”. It sets out the actions needed to encourage household decarbonisation across the UK.

The organization said the UK’s 28 million homes contribute significantly to greenhouse gas emissions, representing approximately 15 per cent of the national total, which is why modernization is such a critical part of the UK’s journey towards UK net zero ambition for 2050.

Several energy companies have launched cheap finance deals to help customers install green measures such as solar panels. However, Nationwide argues that a much more comprehensive and radical government-led approach is needed.

A recent independent report commissioned by OVO concluded that the UK would collectively save £5.6 billion on energy bills and generate 28.5 TWh of electricity if every home eligible for solar panels had them installed.

He said this could reduce carbon emissions by 14.8 million tonnes – the equivalent of taking more than half of all UK petrol cars off the roads for a year – and generate enough electricity to power the UK’s electric vehicles. country in 2024 for almost 10 years.

The national report recommends:

* More public awareness campaigns showing people the benefits of adapting and connecting to information and advice.

* Create a National Retrofit Center, which would support consumers from start to finish of the retrofit journey.

* Energy companies should highlight benefits to customers where there is a need for modernization.

* Greater collaboration between lenders and government, to support customers who can afford improvements.

* Encourage banks and building societies to offer their mortgage customers additional low-cost loans for renovations.

Graham Lloyd, National Head of Strategy and Sustainability, said: “We believe the UK’s 2050 net zero target can only be achieved by encouraging people to invest in their homes.

“As a mutual, we choose to make a difference, which is why we are making renovating your properties as easy and attractive as possible for our mortgage customers. But much more needs to be done and we need both government and business to step in and step up to create meaningful progress.

“This cannot continue to be postponed, as has been the case for some years.”

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