‘to provide further private finance to accelerate home upgrades and low carbon heating’ under its Warm Homes plan. Most lenders either already have or are currently developing green home finance offerings, and industry is waking up to the fact that finance alone (even at 0%) isn’t enough to tempt consumers towards big-ticket green home improvements. Consumers are hitting an information barrier that is stalling action. This is where brokers have a huge opportunity to add value. In the UK, we know that circa 90% of mortgage distribution is intermediated. Customers rely heavily on brokers to walk them through the homebuying journey and act as a central go-between; joining up and speeding along all parties and processes involved. A broker may not be a conveyancing, surveying, investment or tax expert, but they do need to know enough to flag unmet needs beyond their regulatory remit and point consumers in the right direction. If brokers want to maintain and strengthen their ‘one-stop shop’ status with mortgage borrowers, a working knowledge of green home improvement and financing options will be a vital string to add to their bows. Why do we know this? Recent polling from YouGov revealed that public support for Net Zero has risen to 74%. NatWest’s Greener Homes Attitude Tracker found that 67% of homeowners are planning green home improvements in the next decade, whilst 23% intend to take action in the next 12 months. Zooming out, the UK is still legally bound by emissions targets under the Paris agreement. To meet this, the Climate Change Committee has estimated that the domestic retrofit challenge will require a £250 billion spend between now and 2050. As the UK Green Building Council puts it, we need to retrofit two homes every minute for the next 25 years to stay on track. In short, the urgency to act has only intensified. What should brokers do? Whilst the market awaits further clarity on 09 AUTUMN MORTGAGE NEWSLETTER the new policy direction, now is the ideal time for brokers to focus on education, and starting low-stakes conversations with consumers to put home energy efficiency on their radars. The GFI has a wealth of free educational resources on its Green Mortgages Hub, including the Lender and Broker Handbooks on green home technologies and a green mortgage market database. The Green Mortgage Advice Initiative (GMAI) website also offers a growing repository of training webinars, tools, resources and insight aimed at mortgage advice professionals. Education providers like the Chartered Institute of Banking have launched generalist sustainable finance qualifications, and in 2024 the GFI launched the first sector-specific Certificate in Green Mortgages, accredited by the London Institute of Banking and Finance (LIBF). It’s easy to get distracted by the barriers – the flawed Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) system, the lack of consensus on retrofit best practice; and this is before even touching on the need to start futureproofing homes against extreme heat and heightened flood risks alongside measures to reduce emissions. But these are all problems other sectors and governments can solve. Rest assured: solutions will come. And when they do, brokers need to be ready to seize the opportunity if they want to be the ones consumers turn to for help navigating this complex landscape. Remember: just two years ago, 7% of homeowners said they were thinking about green home improvements in the next three years. Now 23% are considering it within the next 12 months. Change is coming – and it may come sooner than you think.
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