Grants, loans and ‘innovative finance’ will fund green technology, with insulation no longer the main objective
Attempts to insulate the UK’s draughty homes have failed time and again, with botched schemes over the past two decades leading to a massive drop in the number of insulation upgrades. With its long-awaited warm homes plan, the Labour government has a different strategy: to bypass insulation in favour of installing green technology such as solar panels and heat pumps.
About £5bn will be invested in home upgrades, including solar panels and batteries, in the form of grants to people on low incomes, as well as £2bn in consumer loans for people who can afford them, and £2.7bn in “innovative finance”, which could include schemes such as green mortgages, whereby householders get a lower interest rate if they invest in making their home more energy efficient.
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