Speaking at the Green Mortgage Summit, Chloe Timperley (pictured), green mortgage campaign lead at the GFI, said: “The market is evolving from a silver bullet approach, where one product is expected to meet the retrofit need, to a Swiss army knife, where we look at a package of layered benefits and solutions.”
She noted that because of this, it is going to be “so crucial” for intermediaries “step into a role of delivering these recommendations and helping support customers on these journeys, because they’re the ones that are placed to have an independent view on the market and perform that signposting role that they already do so well”.
Timperley added: “We need this transition to feel not just probable but inevitable. It needs to feel like something that is a no-brainer, we need landlords to not feel this uncertainty of: ‘Should I sit on my hands, or should I invest right now in my property? Or, when the boiler breaks, should I replace it with another gas boiler? Or should I take the plunge and go for a heat pump?’ I think what all of this underlines is the importance of a shared narrative.”
The GFI unveiled its roadmap earlier this year, plotting out how sustainability can be embedded across the UK’s mortgage market. It outlines five key themes for progress: cross-sector collaboration, commercial viability, public awareness and driving demand, policy clarity for market confidence, and industry education and training.
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Market clarity on key policy areas will be key
Timperley said market clarity was crucial and a “certain amount” is “going to need to come from the top for us to be able to feel confident in saying this is the version of the future that you should be investing in”.
She pointed to several key policy areas, such as the Future Homes Standard, Warm Homes Plan, Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) legislation and electricity pricing changes as key drivers of market clarity.
The Future Homes Standard will introduce the concept of “zero-carbon readiness”. Other measures include all new homes being built with solar and low-carbon heating as standard and there being no gas-connected homes.
The Warm Homes Plan is also expected in Q4 2025 and is working on a range of measures, such as grants for heat pump grants through the Boiler Upgrade scheme, not needing a planning application to install an air source heat pump, and social housing residents, lower-income householders and renters receiving funded energy-efficiency upgrades.
The GFI, Timperley said, is working closely with the government on the green finance aspects of the plan.
“We are awaiting policy clarity, but an additional £1.5bn is to be added to [the] Warm Homes Plan budget, with more details to follow on that,” she noted.
On Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards (MEES) legislation for landlords, the proposed legislation suggests a timeline for new tenancies to have an EPC rating of C by 2028, and this will be applied to existing tenancies in 2030. The announcement and implementation are expected next year, the GFI said.
Another key driver is electricity pricing changes, which were announced in the Autumn Budget and aim to collectively save around £150 per year on energy bills for households.
The saving comes from changes to the Energy Company Obligation (ECO) and Renewables Obligation (RO). ECO funding will end from 31 March 2026. Some 75% of RO costs will now be funded from general taxation, with the savings from this will take effect from 1 April 2026.
Public private collaboration will also be key, so “financial institutions must work closely with government to tackle these barriers, unlock a mass market for green home finance in the UK, and ultimately leverage public finance that mobilises that private capital,” she noted.
Timperley added: “The take-home message here is that once we do have policy clarity on all of these things, we’ll be able to really tackle the next step, which is amplifying of and deepening narratives that frame green home retrofit as part of a societal switchover event, and not just decarbonising one household at a time.”
GFI to launch improved green mortgage hub and retrofit partnerships hub
Timperley added that the GFI is launching its new and improved green mortgage hub and a brand-new retrofit partnerships hub.
The green mortgage hub is a round-up of 93 mortgage products and propositions across the market and is a key resource for brokers and other industry actors to see what green mortgage products are available.
The retrofit services and partnerships hub brings together the 46 “ancillary offers and services currently available from lenders and intermediaries to support the retrofit and sustainable home buying journey.”
Timperley said the GFI was also having ongoing engagement with sourcing systems on naming conventions and definitions so advisers can find these products.
“We have started to see more prevalence of lenders partnering up with the third-party providers of retrofit, home energy surveys [and] ancillary support services that help customers through the retrofit journey, acknowledging that we can’t just be the ones to provide the finance – there does need to be some signposting and extra support there,” she noted.
