Source · Select Committees · Business and Trade Committee
Recommendation 17
17
Not Addressed
Paragraph: 71
We further recommend that the Government should convene the retail banking sector to encourage and...
Recommendation
We further recommend that the Government should convene the retail banking sector to encourage and facilitate low-cost and innovative lending products for consumers, and that public funds are used most widely in supporting lower income families with appropriate grants.
Government response summary AI-generated
The Government's response focuses on energy efficiency schemes, skills competitions, consumer advice tools, and general energy advice services, but does not address facilitating low-cost lending products or the use of public funds for grants to lower-income families, which was the recommendation's core point.
Summary of the government's response below — read the verbatim text to verify.
Paragraph Reference:
71
Government Response
Not Addressed
HM Government · verbatim extract
Not Addressed
Catalysing the market for Green Finance is a priority for Government to help support non-fuel poor homeowners who are ineligible for grants to cover the upfront costs of energy efficiency retrofits and improvements. The £1.8 million Green Home Finance Innovation Fund (GHFIF), which launched in 2020 and will complete by March 2022, was a key early step in supporting the retail banking sector to design, develop and pilot innovative green mortgage products and services for homeowners. As announced in the Net Zero Strategy, the GHFIF will be followed this year by a Green Home Finance Accelerator Programme, focussed on supporting the development of non-mortgage based green finance products, enabling a diverse range of homeowners to decarbonise their homes and improve thermal comfort. This could include unsecured concessional green finance and green equity release for homeowners who own without a mortgage, and green lending products for buy-to-let landlords. As with the GHFIF, our expectation is that this work will provide examples and case studies to galvanise the wider market. The Accelerator will formally launch in late Spring 2022. The recent British Energy Security Strategy announced a doubling of funding for the Accelerator from £10 million to £20 million. Alongside this, in November 2020 the Government consulted on ways to incentivise mortgage lenders in England and Wales to support homeowners to improve their home energy performance. The proposals included requirements for lenders to disclose information on the energy performance of their portfolios, as well as encouraging them to sign up to an improvement style target. These proposals intend to spur the development of attractive and affordable financing options. Close engagement with the lending industry throughout the consultation process has helped to identify a clear set of policy options. The Government will publish the response to the consultation in due course. Finally, the Government is working with the new UK Infrastructure Bank to explore whether they can play a wider role in scaling up green home finance in the future.
Read the full response on Parliament ↗