Financing Home Improvements
Most homeowners don't wake up in the morning and think to themselves. "What a glorious day, time to tackle climate disaster and retrofit this house"
How Green Finance Is Changing The Future of Retrofit
Most homeowners don't wake up in the morning and think to themselves.
"What a glorious day, time to tackle climate disaster and retrofit this house"
Building work is a fractional part of the busy lives we lead, and moving home, house extensions and building upgrades are stressful.
Truthfully, we'd all much rather be doing that one thing we love (insert your source of joy - for me - kayaking) than setting off to avert armageddon with a roll of insulation.
However, the public are becoming acutely aware that something needs to be done as it becomes difficult to ignore the impact of the effects of climate change.
The Green Finance Roadmap
Clever people got themselves all twisted up in 2008 with financial tools that took credit deemed as toxic and sold that bad credit on. It triggered a financial crash.
Today, we might be witnessing the start of a self starting immolation of the US market, and the collapse of our economy....but clever people with a community spirit are coming together in order to rustle up pro active financing solutions for the toughest dilemma facing retrofit in the UK.
How to pay for it.
This planning has been a long time coming.
Ryan Jude Talks Up Green Finance
As this article goes to press, delegates from across Scotland have been meeting at the Scottish Green Finance Summit. There are innovative mortgaging and lending schemes underway. They're not the only ones, working things out.
The National Wealth Fund was represented at Futurebuild 2025 and outlined their plans for coordinating government and private finance for challenging projects across the UK;
The National Wealth Fund Coordinates Private and Government Finance Initiatives
And you may not have have noticed them - unless you read their badges, but a number of Asset Managers from banks across the Square Mile sent their analysts to the Excel (FutureBuild 2025) to take a peek at the sector which is growing at 10% every annum.
What does this mean moving forward for retrofit as a sector?
Coordinated action is coalescing and private investments as well as government cash is having the stimulus you would expect.
Retrofit measures are starting to appear on the horizon of big investors and be (sort of) affordable.
Local Finance Initiative - Bristol Case Study
Possibly the most exciting development in the last few weeks has been the Green Finance Framework being launched by Bristol City Council.
It uses the idea of Green Municipal Investments including green bonds and peer to peer loans (P2P).
The Green Municipal Investments are clever tools that provide council funds, sometimes from refinanced council debt, to fund eligible green initiatives.
These sort of investments have a 'force multiplier' effect. Reinvigorating infrastructure, making homes and places more liveable, healthier and fuel efficient has multiple benefits but the obvious increase in the general health of local residents has an immediate and residual effect on the local economy.
The investments are overseen with independent oversight, evaluation and tracking, so there shouldn't be a repeat of the fiasco seen in many councils who invested in property portfolios and high rise white elephants.
The increase in access to capital spending comes at a time when many councils are facing the threat of S114 bankruptcy.
The reduced risk of failure, thanks to the involvement of critical checks and balances makes the concept of the investments attractive to private finance, you're getting social equity and a return on your investments.
As large investment portfolios in carbon heavy industries look less attractive, institutional investors - the pension fund people - will increasingly look at these local initiatives and see both the social as well as financial benefit.
Green Finance Has Been Around The Block
Whilst established providers like the Ecology Building Society have been setting benchmarks for financing of retrofit and new schemes like Zero Bills from Octopus appear, there is credible evidence to suggest the 'big' money is moving into this sector.
As Stephanie Landymore says in this excerpt from Future Build footage, there is a great opportunity for products that reward retrofit success;
Ecology and the team at Octopus have been laying some great ground work for the work that is still needed.
But private finance has to work. Private finance and green finance, like the Power Rangers, have to become one.
Green Finance Has To Work - Here's Why
There is no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Sorry. It ain't there. We've been chasing rainbows for 50 years.
Private finance has an integral part in pushing, nudging and cajoling us to better homes.
We have a grant scheme in place but that's not enough. And financing the transition to Net Zero is a national imperative, a bit like the old war bond schemes.
The simplest way to look at this is, every penny in the pound you invest in green finance, might give you a return, but we'll have a liveable planet. That's it.
Grants Will End
The grant scheme which this government, and the last one, put in place, will end. As we witness the announcement today of the third wave of funding for social housing retrofit programmes, handily know as WH:SHF - the pots of cash got smaller.
There's a reason for this.
The pots of cash for heat pumps, insulation - all of the retrofit solutions, will get smaller still.
Because the government is stimulating a market for a product and service which we all need, which will get cheaper with economies of scale.
We managed to get some time locked in with Emma Williams at the disruptive company (in a good way, they do good things) SERO, who said;
"While the Warm Homes funding is a significant step towards 2050, it's important to recognise that it's not enough to meet all our housing needs and the grants won’t last forever."
Emma is the Chief Commercial Officer at SERO, for a reason. She's eye balling the real challenge about financing retrofit;
"As landlords ramp up their delivery efforts, we hope to see them innovate, testing new finance models, and using the right measures effectively. This will enable them to deliver more homes and go beyond EPC C."
Warmer homes, with people living more healthy lives will promulgate a wave of support for what retrofit is, a movement about social value, making us a bit more equal because we have homes that support us.
When we get to the nub of it;
"By focusing on quality installations, we can truly showcase how improving our homes positively impacts both people and the planet."
There is not enough good news right now about the positive impact of what a retrofitted house FEELS like. But we are getting there. And good news might not stimulate social media algorithms but it does make people happy
Opportunity Is A Market Motivator
Jeez, you have to be an optimist right now. We live in a capitalist economy, it's rigged, but if you didn't realise that then you don't need to worry about climate change.
A realist will argue we have to play with the hands we have but an optimist would say there is cards still in the deck.
Right now we're playing poker with the planet and at last, the finance team, who we really need, are on the table and laying some big bets.
If you're reading this bit, you're probably really into retrofit.
We have a sponsor.
We don't really want sponsors, or ads.
But JRL a a bit different. Allan, who runs the company has been invested in retrofit for over 25 years.
He now has a group of companies. They can plan, build and retrofit pretty much anything.
So whilst we don't do endorsements, 'cause we're the only independent magazine in this space.
We do think Allan and his team are pretty cool.
If you're an architect, project manager or surveyor. If you need MVHR, retrofit design, planning or construction. Allan is here. ⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️
