Notice

Green Home Finance Accelerator: Discovery Phase projects

Updated 12 March 2024

Applies to England, Scotland and Wales

The Green Home Finance Accelerator: Discovery Phase awarded a total of £4,169,227.42 grant funding to 26 projects across Great Britain.

All Discovery Phase projects had the opportunity in October 2023 to apply to progress to a 15-month Pilot Phase.

List of Discovery Phase projects

Lead organisation	Project title	Grant value
Aceleron Limited	ESaaS Solar and Battery Storage Product for the UK Market	£199,967.50
Arctica Partners Limited	Retrofit Credits Securitisation	£169,210.62
Arniston Ltd (trading as Snugg)	Snugg Green Home Hub	£170,870.00
Ashman Bank Limited	Project Siberian Tiger	£200,000.00
Aviva Equity Release UK Limited	Green Lifetime Lending	£87,612.11
Bankers without Boundaries	Retrofit ROI Heatmap Blending Retail and Institutional Finance	£99,241.38
Chameleon Technology (UK) Limited	HTC-Up	£155,692.46
City Science Corporation Limited	Buy-to-Let Decarbonisation System	£199,916.66
City Science Corporation Limited	Legal and Commercial Structuring for Heat as a Service	£199,330.03
Clydesdale Bank PLC (trading as Virgin Money))	POWER (Partnership Outputs Working to Enable Retrofit)	£171,000.34
Cybermoor Services Ltd	Net Zero Communities	£56,344.54
E.ON Energy Solutions Ltd	E.ON’s Optimised Heat as a Service / Energy as a Service Project	£196,921.49
ELPS Energy Ltd	Integrated Solution for Residential Retrofit Financing (ISRF)	£199,597.80
Energy Saving Trust Enterprises Limited	Buy-to-let Green Finance Journeys	£193,674.44
Escrow-Tech Limited	Carbon-Offset Adjusted Loan Rate Settings for Financing Green Home Improvement Activities (CarbonAdjust)	£159,040.00
Heat Scheme Limited	Employee Clean Heat @Home Scheme	£116,238.97
Kamma Limited	Green Home Optimiser	£200,000.00
Landslide Energy Ltd	Landslide Beta	£126,110.22
Leeds City Council	Leeds Low Carbon Accelerator	£194,780.40
Parity Projects Limited	Empower OSS	£165,589.83
People Powered Retrofit Limited	Credit Union Finance - A Place Based One-Stop-Shop for Retrofit	£120,911.52
Perenna Bank PLC	Green Mortgage and Home Energy Management System	£193,350.92
Phoenix Group Management Services Limited	Decarbonising Homes with Lifetime Mortgages	£102,249.00
Scroll Finance Limited	Point-of-Sale Technology for Financing Retrofits and Energy Efficiency (POST-FREE)	£136,572.91
Scroll Finance Limited	Green Line of Credit Embedded in Retrofit Services (GLOCERS Project)	£158,608.95
Sunsave Group Ltd	The Electric Roof Project	£196,395.33

Details of Discovery Phase projects

Aceleron Limited

Project title: ESaaS Solar and Battery Storage Product for the UK Market
Grant value: £199,967.50
Project Partners: None

Project summary

This project aims to trial a subscription model for the provision and maintenance of lithium-ion batteries (Energy Storage as a Service - ESaaS). Aceleron will retain ownership of the batteries, giving consumers access to renewable energy and battery products under a service agreement. This spreads the cost over a long-term agreement rather than asking consumers to pay for the entire system upfront, enabling more people to access affordable renewable energy.

Project innovation

Aceleron have developed a home energy storage product that is fully maintainable and enables servicing models to become a viable option. The proposed ESaaS product will allow far greater market reach for lithium-ion batteries as it will remove the considerable upfront investment required, which poses a significant barrier to consumers. This will help increase battery storage available for renewable generation in homes. The offer will provide equipment and installation to the user, a platform to monitor the system and a maintenance agreement to keep the system operational. In return, Aceleron will receive a regular monthly payment.

Key project activities

• Gain feedback from potential customers on the proposed products.
• Develop a marketing plan.
• Define ESaaS financial model.
• Structure legal agreements.
• Secure partnerships for large-scale deployment and scale up.
• Define an initial pilot project plan to install the first ESaaS products.

Arctica Partners Limited

Project title: Retrofit Credits Securitisation
Grant value: £169,210.62
Project Partners: The Housings Associations Charitable Trust (HACT)

Project summary

This project aims to investigate a financial product which will support home retrofit, through the Retrofit Credits programme developed by Arctica and the Housings Associations Charitable Trust (HACT).

Project innovation

This project will aim to issue accredited carbon credits based on the amount of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) emissions reduced by retrofitting energy saving measures to a house. A carbon credit is equivalent to one ton of CO2 saved and can be sold, most typically to large companies looking to offset their own carbon emissions. As the reduction in CO2 is permanent, carbon credits can be sold each year for a number of years.

The project will explore whether there is a possibility of selling up to ten years of future carbon credits with payment up front, perhaps at a discount, which would allow payment for the works to be made up front and encourage a larger volume of retrofit works to proceed than otherwise would have been possible.

Key project activities

• Identify a suitably structured finance product which aligns to projected Retrofit Credit cash flows.
• Identify an appropriate organisation to participate in a structured product such as investment/pension fund or bond issuance.
• Investigate and identify organisations to receive upfront payment of credits.
• Market testing with stakeholders to refine and finalise the product.

Arniston Ltd (trading as Snugg)

Project title: Snugg Green Home Hub
Grant value: £170,870.00
Project Partners: None

Project summary

This project aims to develop a prototype version of the Green Home Hub (“the Hub”) a digital platform to tackle the lack of action by consumers to improve the energy efficiency of their homes.

Project innovation

The Hub will guide customers on the journey from initial enquiry, to developing a plan, funding the work, engaging with installers and monitoring the results. Using enhanced data analysis, the Hub will build robust financial cases for investing in energy efficiency measures, enabling consumers to understand the improvements that are most suitable for their home: the costs and savings, the grants and other financial support that might be available - and whether their home could increase in value.

Lenders will be able to offer their innovative green products using the data analysis to tailor those products to the specific circumstances of the homeowner and their property.

Key project activities

• Carry out research and development (Industrial Research) to develop a prototype version of the Hub.

Ashman Bank Limited

Project title: Project Siberian Tiger
Grant value: £200,000.00
Project Partners: Thermafy Group Ltd

Project summary

Ashman Bank, in partnership with ThermaFY Eco Solutions, is developing a first-of-its-kind buy-to-let (BTL) mortgage product founded on its understanding of the real estate market and a desire to be part of the future of decarbonisation of real estate. An innovative data tool will assess the retrofitting works needed to enhance the energy efficiency of an asset, now and in the future.

Project innovation

Landlords need support to understand how to retrofit a residential property and how to invest to get the best return on their investment.  This new product aims to use verified data to support landlords to start decarbonisation, improve energy efficiency and accelerate the path to net zero. It is aimed at the non-regulated BTL market and is aligned to the risk appetite of Ashman Bank who will fund the retrofit subject to certain criteria.

Key project activities

• Design and scope an online experiment with a large sample of homeowners.
• Product viability testing to iteratively test the new product.
• Work to develop scope of technology to support both product delivery and assessment capability.
• Marketing workstream to develop the branding and PR for launch and beyond.

Aviva Equity Release UK Limited

Project title: Green Lifetime Lending
Grant value: £87,612.11
Project Partners: None

Project summary

This project aims to research and develop an equity release proposition, targeted as a cost-effective way of funding home improvements to improve the energy efficiency (and the EPC rating) of customers’ homes.

Project innovation

There is currently a gap between the need for, and desire of, homeowners to upgrade their properties and improve energy efficiency, and the knowledge and financial resources to implement such improvements. This project aims to help plug this gap with a specialised Lifetime Mortgage (Equity Release) product.

The project will examine the appetite of homeowners to upgrade their properties, how advice can be targeted to encourage suitable improvements, and how to tackle behavioural blockers currently inhibiting uptake.

Key project activities

• Conduct external research on customer attitudes, and on the role of financial advisers, who are already required to be involved in the sale of equity release products for general home improvements.
• Seek an external delivery partner for property upgrade advice and execution, which will be essential for delivering an effective product.

Bankers without Boundaries

Project title: Retrofit ROI Heatmap Blending Retail and Institutional Finance
Grant value: £99,241.38
Project Partners: Eunomia Research & Consulting Ltd, SkenarioLabs Ltd

Project summary

This project aims to design a service which will map the scale of potential energy bill reductions from carrying out a deep retrofit, relative to the cost of achieving them on a home-by-home basis. This will show which homes make economic sense to retrofit and which would require greater subsidy. It will support individual homeowner decision making but also allow analysis on how whole areas or property portfolios could be aggregated.

Project innovation

This project will use SkenarioLabs’ data platform to develop a heatmap which highlights properties suitable for self-funding. This output can then be built into emerging place-based delivery models to allow self-funding households to participate in deep retrofits alongside other funding structures. The heatmap can be overlaid with “Able-To-Pay” market data, identifying those with access to retail finance alongside existing subsidy schemes, creating the “Should-Pay” market, i.e. those who have both the access to credit and the financial incentive to carry out the work.

Mortgage providers can use this information to target economically viable homes, aiding Local Authorities to plan and run more effective Net Zero Neighbourhood (NZN) demonstrators. It will also enable Institutional Capital Providers to be more confident in NZN projects’ ability to generate annuity income streams.

Key project activities

• Research and design the geographic heatmap.
• Build in data to the existing Net Zero Neighbourhood model.

Chameleon Technology (UK) Limited

Project title: HTC-Up
Grant value: £155,692.46
Project Partners: NatWest Group PLC

Project summary

This project aims to develop a green finance offer which gives domestic homeowners a complete solution to help them to accurately assess their home energy efficiency. It will recommend products which achieve maximum impact and will offer a tailored loan product to meet their needs/budget with a clear/simple route to credible, approved suppliers. It will verify that the home improvement measure has been installed and consider any next steps which would improve the property.

Project innovation

This project will test the viability of a green finance product and develop the design of the Heat Transfer Coefficient (HTC) and supplier portal functionality. It will test both with users in the landlord and domestic homeowner markets, and refine the solution based on their feedback.

Key project activities

• Determining the key barriers to green finance uptake and ensure that the HTC-Up solution can help to alleviate them.
• The user journey for the HTC product will be explored and tested with users, alongside technical validation of the installation verification.
• Suppliers will be engaged to inform the supplier portal and the design will be tailored accordingly.

City Science Corporation Limited

Project title: Buy-to-Let Decarbonisation System
Grant value: £199,916.66
Project Partners: NBC Property Master Limited

Project summary

This project will explore ways to provide buy-to-let landlords with a comprehensive solution for upgrading their properties, leveraging the knowledge and expertise of mortgage brokers to make the process easier and more cost-effective. It aims to deliver a new service that integrates energy efficiency data with the most appropriate portfolio-level financing options.

Project innovation

Meeting higher standards of requirements would present challenges for some buy-to-let landlords, as identifying the most cost-effective energy efficiency upgrades and finding the appropriate financing can be complex. The proposed solution aims to develop a single product which can provide landlords with both a costed retrofit pathway to achieve their desired outcome, and the optimum finance to allow them to make this investment.

Buy-to-let mortgage brokers are ideally placed to support buy-to-let landlords, by presenting a complete picture of current mortgage offers. This project brings together City Science, a specialist in digital energy efficiency, and Property Master, a mortgage broker focused on the buy-to-let sector.

Key project activities

• Work with users to understand their needs, barriers and motivations.
• Assess the technical processes required to deliver, trusted, robust and FCA-complaint analysis to users regarding their portfolios.
• Develop a digital system to optimise energy efficiency measures, which links them to financing solutions within the buy-to-let market.

City Science Corporation Limited

Project title: Legal and Commercial Structuring for Heat-as-a-Service
Grant value: £199,330.03
Project Partners: Stephens Scown LLP

Project summary

This project aims to provide, through research and analysis, a clear understanding of the legal and commercial challenges facing the Heat as a Service (HaaS) industry and offer practical solutions to enable the delivery of HaaS in the UK.

Project innovation

The HaaS financial model is a promising green finance solution to rising energy costs, and the need for retrofit and low-carbon heat solutions within buildings. It involves providing heat to customers on a subscription basis, similar to a utility service, with the provider responsible for the funding, installation, and maintenance of the heating system and any associated retrofit measures. However, HaaS faces several barriers in the UK, including challenges with ownership and risk allocation.

The project aims to address these challenges and pave the way for the growth of the HaaS industry and the adoption of energy efficient, low-carbon buildings in the UK. It aims to develop a viable commercial delivery model to unlock HaaS for widescale deployment.

Key project activities

• Undertake a comprehensive analysis of the current legal landscape for HaaS in the UK, assessing a range of structuring options.
• Identify financial, risk and operational preferences for delivery options.
• Develop a recommended legal, commercial and financial structure that will enable HaaS to be practically offered, while providing a seamless financial and commercial experience for consumers.

Clydesdale Bank PLC (trading as Virgin Money)

Project title: POWER (Partnership Outputs Working to Enable Retrofit)
Grant value: £171,000.34
Project Partners: Rightmove Group Limited, Sero Life Limited

Project summary

This project aims to remove the upfront cost barrier to installing retrofit measures facing the ‘able-to-pay’ market, as well as providing robust technical guidance on appropriate energy efficiency improvement measures to consumers.

Project innovation

This project will utilise readily available property data, in conjunction with Sero’s digital forecasting tools, to make informed assumptions on properties and their energy efficiency. Customer guidance will consider the uniqueness of the property in terms of its current condition to outline appropriate retrofit improvements and the order in which they should be undertaken.

Once retrofit measures have been installed, the impact to the property will be documented by Sero to demonstrate the increase in energy efficiency. Virgin Money aim to pilot multiple, secured and unsecured green retrofit products focused on facilitating the implementation of energy efficiency measures within residential properties. The finance products will provide borrowers with a substantial cashback offer to fund the upfront cost of installing pre-identified energy efficiency retrofit measures in their home.

Rightmove will utilise their large property dataset to track consumer behaviours in relation to energy efficient property searches and key search terms via their online portal.

Key project activities

• Desktop analysis of properties within Virgin Money’s back book, modelling their energy efficiency and building a greater understanding of the current transitional risks within the portfolio. Properties can then be segmented into archetypes so that those presenting a higher risk can be addressed more swiftly.
• Provide applicants of Virgin Money’s green lending products with a detailed and bespoke Pathway to Zero aligned with PAS2035. The Pathway will provide the customer with a long term itemised retrofit plan to reach Net Zero.
• Support customers seeking to procure the highlighted works through appropriately accredited installers, with Sero verifying the works post completion.

Cybermoor Services Ltd

Project title: Net Zero Communities
Grant value: £56,344.54
Project Partners: The eQuality Homes Co-operative Group Limited

Project summary

This project aims to develop an integrated solution targeting the barriers impacting the uptake of low-carbon heating within the harder-to-reach rural domestic market.

Project innovation

Off-gas grid communities face an urgent challenge with the proposed end date of 2026 for fossil fuel heating, and the greatest commercial viability gap (more remote and lower density housing). This project will develop the design and specifications for an innovative community finance product platform ‘Net Zero Communities’, designed to raise investment for low-carbon community heating schemes to enable the transition from fossil fuel heating.

The ‘Net Zero Communities’ product platform will provide communities with a process to decarbonise their heating using a web platform. It will aggregate demand from local households, and contract with local property owners to build heat networks and install renewable energy on their land. It will estimate costs of the heat networks and low-carbon generation based on the eQuality Homes toolbox and templates from similar projects, including potential savings if people “dig where you live”, and raise community investment, matched with public and institutional funds.

Key project activities

• Undertake consumer, stakeholder, supplier, market and technical research and investigation to inform product design.
• Develop the pilot product platform design, based around real-life pilot projects and the supporting stakeholder, community and customer engagement and research. This will provide valuable feedback to the project team to widen the evidence base for consumer demand and green finance for low-carbon heat.

ELPS Energy Ltd

Project title: Integrated Solution for Residential Retrofit Financing (ISRF)
Grant value: £199,597.80
Project Partners: Leeds Beckett University

Project summary

The aim of this project is to develop an integrated solution for residential retrofit financing. It will work to deliver a one-stop-shop platform for energy efficiency works, connecting vetted suppliers and consumers, and providing innovative Pay-For-Performance (P4P) financing solutions.

Project innovation

The project will develop the ISRF prototype including key commercial, financial and legal requirements, and the fundamental technologies used for energy consumption/savings forecasting. This service aims to tackle the biggest consumer problems related to implementing energy efficiency retrofits: large upfront investments; complicated customer journey; and unfamiliarity with using personal finances for energy efficiency retrofits.

The ISRF will comprise an online and mobile application for customer interface. It will collect home-related data, provided by customers (i.e. energy bills information). The forecasting engine will then compute current energy consumption and future energy savings upon retrofit implementation. Using this data, a clear financing plan will be offered to the homeowner, with up to 100% of the upfront costs covered. Network partners will install the retrofits to provide a hassle-free experience.

Key project activities

• Test the commercial viability of ISRF.
• Create the fundamental technologies for the predictive engine.
• Establish the legal and investment framework.

Energy Saving Trust Enterprises Limited

Project title: Buy-to-let Green Finance Journeys
Grant value: £193,674.44
Project Partners: Residential Logbook Association, Trustmark 2005 Ltd

Project summary

This project aims to explore the Buy-to-let Green Finance Journeys aimed at the private rented sector (PRS) looking to retrofit homes with partners, TrustMark, Residential Logbook Association and with support from Coventry Building Society.

Project innovation

This Journeys service will provide an integrated solution, including advice on home energy measures and PRS-specific advice designed to help overcome retrofit barriers, especially on consents for blocks of flats.

For landlords, the Journeys service will unlock financing offers with project-specific advice, help with finding installers, and – after installation - a home logbook with records of the improvements. For lenders, the Journeys service enables easy testing and development of different green finance offers for the PRS retrofit market by offering a flexible framework of advice, quality assurance, verification and data handling components that can be readily linked to their finance products.

Key project activities

• Develop an initial set of hypotheses in terms of retrofit scenarios, product offers and consumer journeys that can be supported through Journeys.
• Undertake qualitative research with landlords and lenders and identify how a prototype testing of the Journeys Service in the Pilot phase can be delivered.

E.ON Energy Solutions Ltd

Project title: E.ON’s Optimised Heat as a Service / Energy as a Service Project
Grant value: £196,921.49
Project Partners: Energy Systems Catapult Limited, Heatio Financial Services Limited

Project summary

This project aims to develop and pilot innovative green finance products that enable home energy efficiency, low-carbon heating and potentially micro-generation improvements. It aims to develop a green finance market model which can be replicated nationally beyond the lifetime of the programme.

Project innovation

The project will focus on two green finance products:

• Heat as a Service (HaaS) to remove the upfront cost of the heat pump and installation, integrating a wrap-around care package including ongoing optimisation, servicing, maintenance and breakdown support, alongside the development of “heat packages” for customers understanding the proposition needs/choices customers value the most.
• Energy as a Service (EaaS) which will explore the combination of power purchasing agreements with innovative grid services to remove the upfront cost of the solutions (heat pump, PV and battery) and installation, while significantly lowering the energy costs for the home.

Key project activities

• Conduct detailed consumer and market research to ensure the products meet a genuine, proven consumer need.
• Carry out detailed simulation home energy dynamics modelling to support prototype product creation.
• Investigate the optimum operating model to improve the customer journey.
• Develop the commercial business case requirements.

Escrow-Tech Limited

Project title: Carbon-Offset Adjusted Loan Rate Settings for Financing Green Home Improvement Activities (CarbonAdjust)
Grant value: £159,040.00
Project Partners: Modirect Limited

Project summary

CarbonAdjust is an innovative approach to green home financing that utilises the potential offset carbon from retrofitting activities in adjusting loan rate settings for homeowners, reducing the cost of home retrofitting. While rising interest rates make borrowing more expensive, lower to negative interest rates spur borrowing. CarbonAdjust is a negotiation platform that enables homeowners to negotiate favourable rate settings with finance providers based on how much offset emissions such retrofitting actions will yield.

Project innovation

CarbonAdjust’s methodology for evaluating energy demand reductions is in line with PAS 2035 guidelines. This ensures that offset emissions that are certified have wide utility and acceptance across the UK. The innovation of CarbonAdjust is its potential to streamline the retrofitting process by providing a digitally secure platform that interfaces implementing and beneficiary stakeholders. Carbon-Adjust will also provide a secure platform that allows homeowners to trade in their certified carbon credits with financial service providers and interested parties, significantly reducing the cost of home retrofits.

Carbon-Adjust aims to domesticate energy transition at the household level by empowering homeowners with tools to help them extract and own the financial benefits that arise from their retrofitting activities.

Key project activities

• Recruit participating homeowners across the UK to introduce Carbon-Adjust.
• Focus group activity for homeowners, including participating financial institutions and home improvement agencies.

Heat Scheme Limited

Project title: Employee Clean Heat @Home Scheme
Grant value: £116,238.97
Project Partners: None

Project summary

This project aims to develop a UK-wide green home finance loan product, for use in bridging the gap between the upfront cost of a gas boiler replacement and the net cost of a heat pump installation after applying a £5k Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS) grant.

Project innovation

Stage one will explore an employee benefit scheme so employers can provide interest free loans to staff to install heat pumps, insulation and other green products in their homes. As the Heat Scheme operator, the project would provide awareness and education to employers and employees, as well as guidance on choosing which installer to use. Stage two will explore issuing points to an employee after an installation reflecting the cost incurred and the amount of carbon emission avoided over lifetime of the product installed. A marketplace for these points would be established, and impact-minded stakeholders, including employers, would have the opportunity to buy these points, effectively reducing the net cost of a green installation to a homeowner.

Key project activities

• Market research with home occupiers (employees), employers (HR/ employee benefit and sustainability teams) and green home product installers.
• Employee benefit scheme structuring report to help structure core loan product.
• Environmental, social and governance (ESG)/sustainability consultancy report on Heat Scheme and how it relates to the employer.
• Scheme tax and legal advice to set out implications of employer loans to employees and determine the best scheme structure for employers and employees.
• Building up initial discovery phase relationships with potential early adopter employers.
• Using data from above activities to develop core loan product.
• Software architecture and initial product build.

Kamma Limited

Project title: Green Home Optimiser
Grant value: £200,000.00
Project Partners: None

Project summary

This project aims to drive energy efficiency retrofit upgrades in UK properties by developing an online, end-to-end retrofit marketplace connecting homeowners, green finance providers and retrofit installers.

Project innovation

The project seeks to create personalised optimum retrofit packages for any UK home, customisable to the goal of the owner. The platform will demonstrate the financial and investment incentive to carry out improvement works through reduced utility costs and increased property value – currently a blindspot. The most suitable green finance products will feed in presenting the user with the option to avoid potential large upfront costs.

The final stage will be to source and feed in appropriately vetted retrofit installers that can carry out the selected works. This will reduce friction and build a clear business case for retrofit, thereby unlocking and driving the sector.

Key project activities

• Using Kamma’s national data and insights, combined with analysis of lenders’ mortgage books to develop optimum green financing products.
• Developing Kamma’s data and insights engine to allow the creation of a “business case” for retrofitting (this will consider impact on property value, fuel bills, preferential green financing, payback period and grant opportunities available), including customer testing.
• Undertaking research with British Gas on opening the platform to retrofit providers, including investigating how verification and validation could be incorporated.
• Providing a feedback loop for customers to register when work is complete and gauge resulting energy efficiency rating so that current data can be constantly fed into stakeholder organisations to benchmark progress and inform decisions.

Landslide Energy Ltd

Project title: Landslide Beta
Grant value: £126,110.22
Project Partners: None

Project summary

Landslide is a product designed to shorten retrofit payback periods for homeowners who are looking to retrofit and living in properties with an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating of D or lower. This project will test homeowner demand for Landslide and deliver a waitlist of vetted homeowners interested in financing and retrofitting their homes through Landslide’s solution.

Through a combination of machine learning and home energy data analytics, Landslide offers a smart home retrofit roadmap that leverages the properties of the home to optimize savings & consumption. Landslide leverages smart hardware to optimize energy consumption patterns.

Project innovation

Landslide provides homeowners with access to retrofit design and home retrofit financing. Landslide helps authorities track return of investment on green finance initiatives, impact of financing products on GHG emissions, and identify sector bottlenecks by unlocking real-time home energy data and monitoring retrofit impact on property value.

Through GHFA participation, Landslide is building a scalable, machine learning based retrofit design product aimed at improving demand for retrofits by increasing home retrofit impact potential.

Key project activities

• Build Landslide homeowner retrofit financing platform.
• Pilot the viability, robustness and accuracy for the Landslide data software.
• Test reliability and accuracy of Landslide Beta’s impact on EPC score, savings and property value.

Leeds City Council

Project title: Leeds Low Carbon Accelerator
Grant value: £194,780.40
Project partners: Lloyds Bank PLC, Ove Arup & Partners Limited

Project summary

This project aims to support the development of a one-stop-shop (OSS) delivery vehicle. The GHFA project activity focuses on creating and testing green finance retrofit offers to support the smooth customer journey that the OSS will create. GHFA funding will be used to design and test a potential Property Linked Finance (PLF) offer and a complementary solar PV/battery/heat pump offer linked to a smart tariff, to help customers access the wider OSS retrofit project.

Project innovation

The OSS will be responsible for customer acquisition, supply chain development and quality assurance. It will use hyperlocal marketing to create demand in a neighbourhood, then deliver high-quality work. Where this approach has been used in fuel poor areas, LCC has achieved almost 100% take-up from owners and private landlords.

The OSS has been designed to create demand and ensure a smooth customer journey but has deliberately been designed not to provide finance. The project is focused on creating a financial offer which will be available to all households but will not be a pre-requisite to retrofit works. As part of the wider OSS project, we will test consumer appetite for new PLF and smart tariff products in Leeds.

Key project activities

• Design the financial products and create a communication and research strategy.
• Test and refine high level concepts of PLF / smart tariff solutions with c50 householders.
• Commission independent legal and finance advice to ensure feasibility and de-risk products.
• Produce potential future finance product designs to support retrofit.

Parity Projects Limited

Project title: Empower OSS
Grant value: £165,589.83
Project partners: Centre for Sustainable Energy, Community Energy Association (England) Limited, CoreLogic UK Limited, Loco Home Retrofit CIC Ltd, Santander UK PLC

Project summary

This consumer-centred project will investigate the potential for a sustainable retrofit one-stop-shop that empowers homeowners and overcomes barriers in the current retrofit journey, with free upfront advice and links to trusted and relevant services.

Project innovation

The starting point is Parity Projects’ advice platform which currently delivers qualified leads and empowered homeowners to the retrofit marketplace in London under the Ecofurb brand, amongst others. The project will address the complex challenges of the customer journey:

• bringing free online advice to where people need it through finance, community energy and other partners.
• delivering quality assured whole home assessments and plans nationally, with verification of installation quality available to meet homeowner and lender needs.
• links to trusted installers, empowering consumers where there are gaps, and empowering community energy groups to develop their own installer networks.
• overcoming cost barriers through a range of finance options and grant-funding.

This project will deliver a flexible hub that allows consumers to develop their plans and compare finance and installation offers over time, against a Whole House Plan that sets out the costs and benefits of measures and phases their installation, in line with their budget, priorities and preferences.

Key project activities

• Design, build and test options for consumers to access finance for their retrofit projects via an online advice platform.
• Develop a service that provides the quality assured advice and installation required by lenders.
• Engage additional service providers to offer choice to consumers.

People Powered Retrofit Limited

Project title: Credit Union Finance - A Place Based One-Stop-Shop for Retrofit
Grant value: £120,911.52
Project partners: Association of British Credit Unions Limited (ABCUL), Loco Home Retrofit CIC Ltd, Metro Moneywise Credit Union, The Society for the Reduction of Carbon Limited

Project summary

Building on People Powered Retrofit’s track record, this project will develop a mutual, local and trusted one-stop-shop approach to retrofit, combining quality assurance, financing and verification, and setting out replication plans to take advantage of the extensive network of UK Credit Unions.

Project innovation

With a reputation for trust and values, there are over 240 Credit Unions across the UK encompassing 1.3 million members. However, despite many Credit Unions having set out ambitions to lend for retrofit, there is a lack of effective and seamless energy efficiency lending products on the market.

With research highlighting the advantage of place-based approaches to retrofit delivery, this project is community focussed, with locally rooted Credit Unions matched to neighbourhood scale one-stop-shops, affording opportunities for hyper-local, targeted social marketing, supply chain development and recruitment.

Key project activities

• Assess the barriers Credit Unions in the UK face in lending to householders for retrofit and developing simple solutions to overcoming them
• Examine how a mutual lending product can be seamlessly integrated into an existing, retrofit one-stop-shop service delivery and monitoring and verification pathway

Perenna Bank PLC

Project title: Green Mortgage and Home Energy Management System
Grant value: £193,350.92
Project partners: Energy Systems Catapult Limited, Heatio Ltd

Project summary

This green mortgage product will help homeowners to overcome barriers they face in retrofitting their properties.

Project innovation

Perenna plans to bring to market a long-term, fixed-rate green mortgage that incentivises homeowners to retrofit by offering to reduce their mortgage rate.

To enhance this proposition, Perenna will collaborate with Heatio and explore using their Home Energy Management System. This system will provide consumers with more knowledge about the current energy efficiency of their property and provide recommendations on how to improve it.

Perenna customers who follow these recommendations and complete a retrofit will be rewarded with a lower mortgage rate. The discounted rate would be applied once reductions in energy consumption have been validated by Heatio’s system. This method of validation will give confidence to both customers and green bond investors that the retrofit has had a material and measurable impact.

Key project activities

• Develop Heatio’s hardware and software to be installed in homes for energy monitoring.
• Undertake qualitative and quantitative research with consumers to understand issues and interests in retrofit and the potential appeal of the green mortgage product.
• Develop a product blueprint based on this research.
• Review homes that are likely to achieve the target savings to validate the building types that represent the target market based on energy saving potential.
• Develop Heatio’s system to act as the data-driven method of retrofit validation.

Phoenix Group Management Services Limited

Project title: Decarbonising Homes with Lifetime Mortgages
Grant value: £102,249.00
Project partners: None

Project summary

This project aims to investigate the obstacles faced by older, less-affluent, homeowners to make decarbonising home improvements and the features that could create a desirable lifetime mortgage proposition.

Project innovation

This project explores a solution for older homeowners who would otherwise be unable to fund decarbonising home improvements.

The project will explore the potential for lifetime mortgages to fund energy efficiency home improvements for older homeowners and will look to identify features that overcome existing barriers. This will include investigating a collaboration that will offer a simple end-to-end customer journey.

Key project activities

• Undertake customer research to understanding the needs and barriers faced by older people.
• Cost benefit analysis of decarbonising home improvements and the use of lifetime mortgages to fund them.
• Develop a collaboration that will support an end-to-end customer journey.
• Identify the features that would lead to a desirable proposition.
• Produce a plan and business case for piloting the proposition.

Scroll Finance Limited

Project title: Point-of-Sale Technology for Financing Retrofits and Energy Efficiency (POST-FREE)
Grant value: £136,572.91
Project partners: Sustainable Building Services (UK) Limited, Sustainable Energy Services (UK) Ltd

Project summary

This project aims to develop a point-of-sale financing tech solution, specifically for retrofitting and low-carbon projects. The solution would be offered to homeowners and landlords through builders and/or their sub-contractors (including assessors and installers). The project will adopt an incremental, geographic area-based approach to offer industry-standard energy efficiency and low-carbon measures to homeowners. It would follow a simple approach aimed at upgrading the fabric of the building first, before tackling more complex measures.

Project innovation

This project is aimed at private homeowners and landlords. It will explore two new ideas. First, the blending of private finance options with public funding to enable grant applications through one seamless tech platform. Second, designing an integrated customer journey with an easy-to-understand ‘pathway’ to identify key measures, provide bespoke advice, and make finance options available at the point-of-sale in a clear and simple way. To enable this, the platform would actively look to develop partnerships with a few banks, lenders, brokers and fintechs.

Key project activities

• Conduct primary and secondary research including homeowner interviews/surveys and focus groups with supply chain partners.
• User interface (UI)/user experience (UX) design and product development.
• Build partnerships with key stakeholders including banks and lenders.
• Conduct user testing and feedback.
• Undertake marketing-related activities, including experimental campaigns to gauge interest levels.

Scroll Finance Limited

Project title: Green Line of Credit Embedded in Retrofit Services (GLOCERS Project)
Grant value: £158,608.95
Project partners: Sustainable Systems Ltd

Project summary

This project aims to scope, design and test an end-to-end retrofit journey embedded with an innovative and flexible financial product. The Green Line of Credit Embedded in Retrofit Services (GLOCERS) project will test the appetite of homeowners for a comprehensive service to explore and understand their property’s current state and potential for improved energy consumption. The service would provide financing through easy access of home equity, connect homeowners to accredited installers, and monitor the outcomes and impacts of those retrofits to the home’s energy efficiency.

Project innovation

A key focus will be to develop a pioneering ‘green line of credit’ product as a flexible, secured mechanism to finance upfront costs of retrofit. Key features include:

• Test uptake amongst stakeholders for low-cost embedded green finance (including at 0% APR for first 12 months).
• Flexible drawdown and repayment features against an approved credit limit to fund payments for measures carried out over a longer period.
• Ring-fencing financing for “green” purposes only with direct payments to installers.
• Developing an interactive calculator for homeowners to get live financing quotes whilst planning a retrofit project.

Key project activities

• Design and scope an online experiment with a large sample of homeowners.
• Map out an integrated customer journey.
• Financial product development and legal and regulatory research.
• Developing property valuation model to demonstrate impact of green measures.
• Build a customer-facing prototype and conduct user testing.

Sunsave Group Ltd

Project title: The Electric Roof Project
Grant value: £196,395.33
Project partners: Rebel Energy Supply Limited, Solo Energy Limited

Project summary

This project aims to research the roadblocks that remain for subscription solar and prepare to develop a proposition that can be brought to market and rapidly scaled.

Project innovation

Only 3% of UK housing stock has had solar installed to date.

Sunsave was founded to address consumer barriers to uptake by offering a turnkey ‘solar+battery as a service’ proposition for homeowners, wrapping together a tech-enabled customer buying journey with installation, long-term financing, and ongoing monitoring and maintenance - the UK’s first Solar as-a Service proposition.

Developing Solar as a Service in the UK requires the worlds of finance, hardware manufacturing, energy and software to collaborate closely together. Through the Electric Roof project, the consortium will work together to break down these barriers and pave the way for solar and storage to be accessible for rooftop owners in the UK.

Key project activities

• Research the integration of energy services with financing for solar.
• Unblock legal and regulatory barriers to novel solar-as-a-service.
• Build routes to overcome the “home move challenge” that faces any long-term financing for home improvements.