Barclays is working with TV guru Phil Spencer to give home owners some £2,000 to make selected energy-efficiency improvements to their properties.
The bank’s Greener Home Reward scheme offers eligible residential mortgage customers up to £2,000 - no additional lending is required and all eligible new and existing Barclays UK residential mortgage customers can sign up. Customers must register for the cash reward online and then make and pay for a selected home energy efficiency-related improvement.
Customers can choose to install an air-source heat pump, double or triple glazed windows, solar panels, or home insulation, amongst other enhancements.
The announcement comes as a landmark study by Barclays and polling firm Ipsos of nearly 3,000 homeowners reveals widely held misconceptions around the cost and inconvenience of installing energy efficiency-related modifications are among the issues holding homeowners back from making retrofitting upgrades to their homes.
The research findings show the many homeowners overestimate the cost of energy efficiency-related improvements, with the largest discrepancy found to be the anticipated price of loft and roof pitch insulation, which respondents thought was more than two and half times more expensive than homeowners actually paid on average (£3,371 vs £1,213).
The cost of A-rated double/triple-glazed windows was also significantly overestimated, with respondents predicting it could cost a third (33 per cent) more than homeowners paid on average (estimated cost £8,166 vs actual £6,125).
The findings also suggest that owners misjudge retrofitting disruption. The data also showed that homeowners think the installation of some modifications will take longer than the time works actually take to complete, which could be particularly off-putting to hybrid and homeworkers who want to minimise disruption.
The most significant misconception was the length of time required to install solar panels, which were overestimated by 45 per cent of respondents. Homeowners also considered that A-rated double or triple-glazed windows took over 22 per cent longer to install than in reality.
And the research also revealed that modifications could boost house prices. Nearly one in two homeowners agreed they are willing to pay a premium for properties that have already undergone key energy efficiency-related retrofitting modifications.
When thinking about their own home, homeowners said they could be willing to pay around £23,000 more sum total for the same sized property with all of these four key energy efficiency measures installed, which represents a near six per cent uplift based on the average house price of those surveyed.
This figure climbs to £30,000 among homeowners with a house worth between £500,000 and £900,000, demonstrating the potential returns that retrofitting might be able to offer.
Barclays has partnered with Phil Spencer to provide insight to homeowners.
He says: “Having worked in property for more than 20 years, there has never been greater interest in retrofitting than there is today. Energy efficiency is a key consideration for house-hunters so properties with these types of modifications are in huge demand.”
“As Barclays’ research highlights, there are common misconceptions around the cost and disruption of retrofitting a home. I know that, when done properly, energy efficiency modifications can be transformative, resulting in energy savings and making your home more attractive to would-be buyers in the future.”
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I really don’t care about the installation times. What I do care about is the 10k you spend to save your tenant £90 a year in energy usage costs. Until the ratios carry some resemblance to the cost many including me look upon it as just a complete rip off.
Quite right , I was quoted £12,000 spend to save , wait for it £48 pa !!!
The whole Green Agenda / EPC etc etc is a scam / fraud / joke
Anyone in the know understands what nonsense this is, to make the real changes to get a C rating for older properties, it will need them ripping apart. Just sell up 💰💵
Spend multi thousands of pounds to save multi thousands of pennies. What a load of tosh. I'm selling up...it won't stop at EPCs....
Mine will never get there, but beautiful old buildings, One a Georgian Townhouse Grade II listed building. Explain how I can get that to a C ?? Few light bulbs will not help with that one.
When liebour get in we'll have ridiculous property taxes
God help us all then
Anyone contemplating solar energy or heat fans must consider not only the initial installation cost but also the return on the investment and replacement life and cost of key components. Of course, if the tenant pays the energy bills (as in most cases, the landlord won't get a return unless the rent is increased to ensure this.
Phil Spencer is talking about residential owners willing to pay £23k and £30k to get £2k assistance. This is ridiculous. Last time this happened was when London Mayor chose a company Get-Together for solar panels. They took the money after installation and no literature as to how it works, where we can get feed-in tariffs. This is for a let property. After chasing them hundreds of times, they are not sending me anything. They said email was sent. However, nothing was received and they will not forward it to me. There have been a lot of complaints about this company. London Mayor does not wish to know. It is all very well Phil spencer talking about £2k subsidy for a very large outlay. Who will monitor the outcome when things go wrong after paying such large amounts. A lot of so called solar panels, heat pump installers have gone bankrupt or closed down after the directors have made a lot of money out of public.
Think master Spencer opens up and churns out tosh. I’ve also been told stay away from heat pumps. Too expensive and when go wrong watch out.
There are always new companies with the same directors popping with brilliant ideas to outbid everyone and get businesses from a lot of people who pay them deposit and then do not do anything or take 2 years to install, well past the deadline given to install the panels or heat pumps. We had a pump installed and it does not work as expected and never returned. This is total shambles. When such work go wrong the govt will still hassle the LL about the EPC, as these companies have to give you a new EPC after the work, but they did not do so in the 2 out of where work was done. They disappeared. Do the govt know that these so called expert companies do not know how to install or communicate the workings of it? What EPC rating, when those companies energy companies do not do the work they are paid for. There is no benefit to the tenants. The government is asking for a totally untested market for installation scheme. All the costs will be for the LL and no returns for the tenants at all. Gov't will still blame the LLs for something energy companies cannot install. They are usually fly-by-night companies. If it was British Gas or Shell or large energy companies they will be obliged to resolve the issues.
I have just bought 14 EPC points. I replaced a perfectly good electric radiator with a HHRSH. I don't know whether it will make the property warmer or cheaper to heat - probably neither - but I now have an EPC C so I can rent it out for at least 10 years. It cost approx £100 per point but the rent has gone up £130 pcm for the new tenant so I will get my money back over the next year. They won't!
Exactly it Tricia, whatever we spend has to be recovered from our tenants, when the agent fees ban came in the cost to me was factored into the rent so I was no worse off
Wow makes a change to read a PLL getting one up.
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