DECC publish Greener Homes strategy

[Ted]

Householders are to be loaned money to help them install renewable energy technologies and make their homes more energy efficient under a new strategy launched today (March 2).

The strategy, entitled Warm Homes, Greener Homes, is a government bid to cut emissions from UK homes by 29% by 2050 - with around one quarter of UK emissions currently coming from energy used in homes.

http://www.newenergyfocus.com/do/ecco/view_item?listid=1&listcatid=32&listitemid=3650&section=Policy

http://www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/what_we_do/consumers/saving_energy/hem/hem.aspx

[noelsquibb]

A gov scheme that doesn't involve them skimming some of the money as it goes round ?
Whats in it for them ?

And perhaps more interesting, how might a house buyer 'take over' a loan that was made to the previous owner ?
What effect might this secondary loan have on the purchasers mortgage application ?

For the main lender there would probably be a reduction in the amount they will lend, as you will already be carrying debt on the transferred loan and then theres the additional costs of clearing the secondary charge in the event of repossession.

I suspect people will end up paying off these loans and incorporating them into the new mortgage, rather than getting into the legal charges involved with a transfer.

I would expect most green energy companies to farm out the finance as they are unlikely to be big enough to carry the kind of debt that is under discussion.

Not terribly impressed. It just feels like another way to get people to borrow and spend.
Hey that's good for the economy isn't it ? 
Or was it this approach that caused the current mess ....

[wookey]

Noel, what is wrong with borrowing against future energy savings? I'ts not like borrowing to buy a new car, or clothes or even kitchens.

Insulating your walls/roof/floor/doors will save you money over 20 years - pretty much guaranteed. So will installing solar thermal, a better boiler, a woodburner etc, etc, so you get what you borrowed back. The problem for many people is that they have to spend the money up front. If they haven't got it spare then either they have to borrow it, or they simply don't bother and carry on wasting energy because in pure cashflow terms, it's cheaper.

This proposal makes it easy to borrow aginst those future savings which is exactly what an awful lot of people have been asking for, and absolutiely what is needed to get everyone insulating beyond the easy stuff of lofts and cavities.

The other reason why it's necessary is that we are in a hurry. To get CO2 emissions down 15% by 2020 (or whatever it is we've signed up to), all that insuation needs to happen at a really scary rate (25 million solid walled houses - 10 years - you do the maths). Making borrowing for it easy helps it happen now rather than in 10 years time, which is too late.