Barclays has extended its partnership with British Gas to help its mortgage borrowers improve the energy efficiency of their homes with a personalised plan of retrofit actions.
Borrowers will be offered a British Gas Home Health Check for a discounted price, along with a free EPC to help improve their home’s energy efficiency.
The deal follows research by the bank that found that, while 70% of homeowners would like their homes to be more energy efficient, 35% said they were dissuaded from making energy-efficient improvements because they did not understand which upgrades were right for their property.
Meanwhile, just over 30% of homeowners said they did not have an up-to-date EPC, and nearly half said they would benefit from personalised recommendations to make their home more energy efficient.
Barclays borrowers can get a Home Health Check for £50 instead of the standard price of £99 and receive the EPC for free instead of paying £20.
‘Personalised recommendations’
The Home Health Check provides an in-home survey, during which an accredited domestic energy assessor analyses how energy is used in the customer’s home. The assessor then provides personalised guidance on ways the customer could lower their energy bills, reduce their energy consumption and make their homes more efficient. This includes recommendations to make existing systems more efficient at low or no cost where possible, as well as recommending new solutions.
The partnership is part of Barclays’ Greener Homes Strategy and builds on the existing relationship between Barclays and British Gas.
Nick Stace, head of sustainable finance at Barclays UK, said: “Aside from the upfront cost, one of the major barriers our customers face when trying to make their home more energy efficient is confusion about which of the various upgrades are right for their property. Through our ongoing partnership with British Gas, we want to help overcome this barrier by providing customers with personalised recommendations for saving money and potentially reducing their energy consumption.”
“We also want to help incentivise those changes, through schemes such as the Barclays Greener Home Reward, which gives a cash reward of up to £2,000 to UK residential mortgage customers who install a qualifying home energy-efficiency improvement.”
Related: Homeowners set to receive better retrofitting advice for draughty, inefficient properties
