A point-of-sale finance technology solution for home retrofit has been given a £1.8m grant for its pilot phase after a successful discovery phase
The government’s Department for Energy Security & Net Zero has enabled the home retrofit project via a grant from the Green Home Finance Accelerator, part of the £1bn Net Zero Innovation Portfolio.
The home retrofit scheme Point-of-Sale Technology for Financing Retrofits & Energy Efficiency, or POST-FREE, is a collaboration between retrofit decarbonisation solutions provider Sustainable Building Services (UK) Ltd (SBS), retrofit decarbonisation consultant Sustainable Energy Services (SES) and fintech Scroll Finance.
After a successful six-month Discovery Phase that utilised £136k in initial grant funding, the home retrofit scheme’s Pilot Phase will last for 14 months.
Home retrofit efforts are currently limited by cost, say residents
Research undertaken showed that the most common barriers to prevent homeowners and landlords from pursuing retrofit work were the high upfront cost and inadequate access to suitable finance options, experienced by 78% of participants who took part in the research.
The Pilot Phase is anticipated to be executed across multiple local authority areas in England and Wales in close proximity to existing social housing decarbonisation projects being completed by SBS.
By integrating the POST-FREE solution in the journey of SBS and SES customers, the pilot phase will enable the market to learn about eligible retrofit measures from expert personnel who will also advise on a PAS 2035-aligned ‘fabric-first’ approach – which will ensure customers achieve their desired outcomes.
Scroll Finance is assembling an initial lender panel that can offer finance options for both individual or a package of measures, and to enable deep retrofit upgrades. These categories were identified in the discovery phase and enable a wide range of improvement costs and customer needs to be met.
Retrofit energy efficiency and decarbonisation should be available to all
Derek Horrocks, chair and owner of Sustainable Building Services, said: “We firmly believe that retrofit energy efficiency and decarbonisation improvements should be accessible to all, without the financial barriers faced by many consumers.
“We’re aiming to reach thousands of homeowners and private landlords during this next phase, which should yield significant feedback on the solution we’re developing and establish positive community change in the process. We look forward to seeing the results obtained over the next 14 months and wish good luck to those also receiving government funding as part of this green accelerator – innovative solutions are needed now more than ever.”
Finance solutions available at the point-of-sale could include:
- unsecured personal loans
- specialist energy efficiency loans
- ‘buy now pay later’
- green mortgages
- Scroll Finance’s secured financing products
Customers can apply for energy grants – local and national – to seamlessly blend with the selected private finance option. Ashish Kashyap, CEO and founder of Scroll Finance, said: “POST-FREE’s core promise is to enable and encourage different players in the energy efficiency and financial ecosystem to participate in retrofitting of UK homes – something that will help deliver better outcomes for all.
“As this project has evolved, we have continued learning and refining our solution, so we expect to continue this improvement process throughout the pilot phase. The owner-occupier and private rented markets are in need of support, and we’re on a mission to deliver a solution which will improve financial flexibility, quality of life and environmental performance via a smooth customer journey offering single or whole house retrofit.”
