ROUND TABLE
GREEN MORTGAGES
A GREENER FUTURE FOR MORTGAGES Everyone is talking about being ‘greener’ – but could the mortgage industry do more to embrace energy-saving concerns? Simon Meadows covers our latest round table discussion
G
reen issues have come a long way from when environmental concerns were considered a niche interest, dismissed by many in previous decades as a preoccupation of social activists. Not any longer. An ever-growing awareness of the impact that we are having on our planet has moved the debate from the fringes to the centre ground of our political discussion and filtered into our everyday lives, embraced by everyone from our new sovereign, King Charles, to armies of campaigning schoolchildren. The UK government has, meanwhile, committed to making the UK carbon-neutral by 2050, meaning that for all the CO2 produced in the UK each year, the same amount will be cancelled out by energy-saving measures. With our homes making up an estimated 22 per cent of the UK’s total carbon emissions, we arguably all have a part to play in this. Sustainability is now the buzzword of young and old, it seems, permeating conversations from the breakfast table to the boardroom, and it’s making its mark, too, in the mortgage industry, due to the sector’s inseparable link with property, where so many of our environmental concerns are focused.
Much of the green debate surrounds how we can decarbonise our homes, making them more energyefficient and sustainable, be it with solar panels, heat pumps, or cavity wall insulation. And this debate has gained traction with the recent escalating costs of energy and anxiety over how homeowners might be able to afford to heat their properties. Yet there is still, clearly, a huge amount of work to be done if the UK is to hit its 2050 target. As many as 15 million homes in England and Wales could need energy-efficiency improvements to meet the proposed target of an Energy Performance Certificate
“Now, more than ever, we need to come together and ensure that as a sector, the intermediary market is really leading the charge in the green space” AMANDA BRYDEN
Want to help your clients go green? For the use of intermediaries and other professionals only.
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10
GREEN MORTGAGES NOVEMBER 2022
19/10/2022 17:05
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