"Generally, what we are seeing is a general lender malaise, a tokenistic attempt to capture borrowers’ (and brokers’) attention"
The last few weeks have seen – in personal finance terms – wall-to-wall coverage of this. We have barely been able to turn our TV sets on without viewing Martin Lewis in harrowing close-up as he bellows at us about how bad it’s going to be and how he’s run out of tools to help people. At least he seems to care.
There has been no time in the last decade – perhaps ever - when utility bills, energy efficiency, and green-improvement measures have grabbed the collective consciousness of the UK homeowner like now.
It has been, and will remain, an utterly unifying subject for every householder, and you would think from a mortgage lender perspective, that means there is no better time to be launching a raft of initiatives, measures and products to help support borrowers who want (and need) to improve the energy efficiency of their homes.
Homes, which we should point out, are one of the biggest contributors to carbon emissions, and lenders who have been specifically told to improve the EPC levels of the properties on their mortgage back books in order to help the UK meet its net zero carbon targets.
So, obviously at this time, what we’re getting from lenders is a huge push in this area. Aren’t we? This, after all, is a marketeer’s dream; a communication opportunity like no other which can ensure the nation’s properties get to where they need to be, while at the same time helping lenders meet their own responsibilities?
We’re seeing a lender community – which has bemoaned the lack of transactions currently being achieved – going all out to support their existing borrowers to help them make the changes required to deliver those more energy-efficiency homes? Aren’t we?
We’re seeing lenders marketing highly-competitive further advances to their customers in order to help them pay for solar panels/loft insulation/heat pumps, and any other type of significant investment to improve those EPC levels? Aren’t we?
We’re seeing those same lenders teaming up with the suppliers and installers of such equipment, to provide discounts to their customers, as they’re able to use their sizeable economies of scale to fire significant levels of business across to them? Aren’t we?
We’re seeing major advertising campaigns focused on a raft of green mortgages which provide real price incentives to those mortgage borrowers who do move the dial on their EPC chart? Aren’t we?
We’re seeing lenders point all homeowners in the direction of the Government’s EPC checker page which not only tells you exactly what your current EPC level is, but gives you a range of ideas around what you can do to improve it? Aren’t we?
We’re seeing lenders pointing all stakeholders in the direction of carbon offsetting, because they have committed to ensuring they take all the carbon out of their moving/purchase/remortgage process, and wider business, and they want others to do the same? Aren’t we?
You’ll have sensed by now, that we are – on the whole – seeing nothing of the sort. Generally, what we are seeing is a general lender malaise, a tokenistic attempt to capture borrowers’ (and brokers’) attention, a focus on rewarding those who have already bought homes ranked EPC A-C rather than those who require incentives to improve, a lack of engagement in terms of how they can offset their own – and their customers’ – carbon emissions, a belief that they require further Government guidance before they can act. We could go on.
Let’s be utterly frank here, in general terms, most lender’s approach to this issue has been woeful, and the fact they have essentially missed the biggest open goal available to them, given what is currently going on, is pretty shameful. These are billion-pound organisations who have the resource and capacity to make huge differences to the their customers, their businesses, their staff, their stakeholders and the environment as a whole. And yet…
The question must be asked: If not now, when? Let’s hope it’s sooner rather than later because soon it will be too late.
