Green Deal loan scheme relaunches

The company has announced that it is relaunching the Green Deal scheme and Green Deal loans, which were closed two years ago in light of low take-up and concerns about industry standards. It acts as part of a “soft launch” of the GDFC, ahead of a wider rollout later on in the year.

The formerly government-owned firm and its assets were purchased by Aurium Capital Markets and Greenstone Finance for an undisclosed sum in January. The Green Deal offers households loans through approved installers and providers to commence energy-efficiency projects at no extra upfront costs.

GDFC’s chief executive Kilian Pender said: “We are extremely pleased to announce the relaunch the Green Deal scheme and Green Deal loans. Since acquiring the business in January, we have received a very significant amount of support from government, energy efficient focused organisations, manufacturers and installer organisations amongst others, all of whom are eager to see the scheme continue where it left off and build further momentum.”

The company hopes to extend finance offers across a wider number of Green Deal Providers over the coming months. Any households that takes out a loan through the scheme will repay it through energy bills. The energy savings are expected to generate cost savings for each household.

Finance in abundance

The GDFC is raising debt finance through the peer-to-peer finance platform Abundance Investment. More than £2m has been raised through Abundance in the month since the raise was launched. Around £2m in further investment is available, and the raise is 50% subscribed.

Abundance is no stranger to working in the green sector. Last year, it launched the UK’s first ‘Innovative Finance ISA’, allowing investors to finance renewable projects through an operative tax ISA that could boost the green economy by £28.5bn.

The much-criticised Green Deal scheme launched in 2013, but fell well short of its initial target of signing up 10,000 households in its first year of operation. But the market did begin to pick up, and by the end of June 2015, measures had been installed in around 10,000 properties using Green Deal finance, with an additional 5,600 Green Deal finance plans in progress before the cancellation of the deal.

Matt Mace