The Green Finance Institute (GFI), Lloyds Banking Group and NatWest Group have unveiled a ‘greenprint’ to unlock up to £70bn of private investment in sustainable retrofit across the UK.

The GFI’s new report sets out a series of guiding principles and seven key steps for how Property-Linked Finance (PLF), a green financial solution not currently available in the UK, should be designed and launched in England and Wales, including calling for enabling legislation from the Government and the establishment of pilot programmes.

PLF helps overcome the high upfront costs of installing retrofit measures in UK homes, which are some of the oldest and least energy efficient homes in Europe.

As a recent report by Rightmove found, around half of the £1 million-plus homes with an energy performance certificate (EPC) issued in the past year have significantly improved their rating since their previous EPC, versus just 32 per cent of properties worth less than £400,000, creating an energy efficiency divide.

PLF helps bridge this ‘green wealth divide’, between those who can afford to retrofit and those who cannot, making retrofit more accessible and more affordable for all home owners, as well as for commercial properties.

The GFI estimates PLF has the potential to catalyse between £52bn and £70bn of private investment into building decarbonisation across England, Scotland and Wales – materially contributing towards the UK’s net-zero ambitions and helping improve the UK’s inefficient building stock.

Eloise Henderson-Day, PLF programme director, Green Finance Institute, said: “Successfully introducing PLF in the UK will require a collaborative approach across the entire built environment ecosystem. We are working with financial institutions, policymakers, regulators, local authorities, property owners and experts, to ensure financial, real estate and retrofit industries support the evolution of this innovative green finance solution, but more players are needed. By working together, we can create a robust, flexible and widely adopted PLF market in the UK and beyond, driving the transition to a more sustainable future for all of us.”

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