Halifax has teamed up with Octopus Energy and Effective Home to offer its mortgage customers cashback rewards of up to £2,000 home energy efficiency improvements such as solar panels and air source heat pump installations, the financial firm has announced this week.
The Halifax Green Living Reward, which is being made available to any mortgage customer with a Halifax current account, includes a raft of incentives such as £2,000 cashback for installing a heat pump, or up to £1,000 for installing solar panels or battery storage systems.
For heat pumps it could mean that, when combining the £2,000 cashback offer alongside various government-funded grant schemes, it is “actually feasible that replacing an outdated gas boiler could cost you nothing”, according to Andrew Assam, mortgages director at Halifax.
“We are committed to helping our customers live in warmer, more energy efficient homes, on the journey to net zero,” he added. “Improving the way older homes are heated, powered, and insulated is critical. Green Living Reward offers an incentive to anyone that wants to make their home more energy efficient but is concerned about the cost.”
Through the partnership with solar panel provider Effective Home, Halifax customers purchasing solar panels, batteries or installation services can benefit from an additional £500 discount on quotes for solar panel packages, according to the firm.
Moreover, through the partnership with Octopus Energy, customers looking to install air source heat pumps can benefit from a £100 energy bill credit after installation, it explained.
The banking firm also said it would offer £500 cashback on a range of improvements including biomass pellet boilers, solar thermal heating, A-rated double or triple glazing, cavity wall insulation and roof insulation.
The Green Living Reward is a benefit available to any mortgage customer with a Halifax current account who is taking out new lending or a new deal and wants to make their home more energy efficient over the next 12 months, the bank explained. It allows customers to fund their home improvements through savings, government grants, additional borrowing or a combination.
Halifax said it would also support for customers through its government grant finder service, which it said could reduce the cost of home insulation.
In related news, this week saw the launch of a new independent UK think tank named Ambient, which has a stated aim to accelerate the adoption of electrified heat solutions through influencing policy.
The non-profit organisation said it would seek to support policymakers and industry by providing data on the electrified heat transition.
Founding members of the think tank include politician Baroness Worthington and clean heating expert and academic Dr Jan Rosenow, who is programme director at the Regulatory Assistance Project (RAP).
“The time is now to scale world-leading, clean home heating for Britain,” said Ambient’s founder and chair, Irene Omaswa. “Transformational policy is key to this and we aim to support the Government in the policy process by collating data and delivering unique insights into the transition.
“As an independent not-for-profit organisation we want to collaborate with the whole sector and for the data we collate to benefit the market as a whole. By doing this, we want to contribute to creating an enabling environment for the UK to become a clean energy superpower with lower energy bills for families and businesses.”
You can now sign up to attend the fifth annual Net Zero Festival, which will be hosted by BusinessGreen on October 22-23 at the Business Design Centre in London.