We are excited to announce our involvement in a new project aimed at developing an innovative point-of-sale financing technology solution for residential retrofit decarbonisation projects, helping homeowners and landlords across the country enhance the energy efficiency and performance of their properties.
Point-of-Sale Technology for Financing Retrofits & Energy Efficiency (POST-FREE) is a collaboration with retrofit energy efficiency management consultant Sustainable Energy Services (SES) and fintech marketplace and lender Scroll Finance.
With a large majority of the UK’s roughly 29 million domestic properties requiring significant energy efficiency, low-carbon heating and microgeneration improvements, POST-FREE aims to design and develop a solution to facilitate the whole-house decarbonisation of homes.
The solution can be delivered through the retrofit decarbonisation supply chain, including retrofit assessors and energy efficiency installers, and will also look to explore the ability for consumers to apply and blend grant funding along with finance options.
Our chair and owner Derek Horrocks said: “There are a number of factors driving the need for retrofit energy efficiency projects – reducing the cost of energy bills, using sustainable solutions, reducing their carbon footprint, improving health and wellbeing and adding value to a property. But for many landlords and homeowners, putting this into practice is costly.
“That being said, for those that can invest, there are significant long-term savings to be made. While not everyone will have the financial freedom to complete an entire retrofit project, we believe advice and support is key to helping people make smarter decisions and that is the ambition of this consumer-friendly technology.
“By working with Scroll Finance, we have aligned our specialisms for a greater good that we believe could be a game-changer for the industry and tackling decarbonisation within housing.”
The Government’s Department for Energy Security & Net Zero (DESNZ) has enabled the project via the Green Home Finance Accelerator, part of the Net Zero Innovation Portfolio and worth £137,000, under the ‘discovery phase’ of the competition. This innovation funding is welcomed to develop green finance products which can enable the uptake of home energy efficiency and low carbon heating measures, and potentially be blended with government/utility grant funding initiatives.
The project will then look to progress to the ‘pilot phase’ to trial the technology in the market in 2024.
The solution will develop one seamless platform, enabling a blended finance option. A suite of financing and payment options will be explored to make available at the point-of-sale, including unsecured financing, buy now pay later, green mortgages, payment options (bank, card, variable recurring payment options), and Scroll Finance’s secured financing products (home equity loan and home equity line of credit).
Ashish Kashyap, CEO and founder of Scroll Finance, said: “Scroll is deeply honoured to have the opportunity and responsibility of building an innovative point-of-sale green homes finance platform.”
“We are thrilled to partner with Sustainable Building Services and Sustainable Energy Services, who bring extensive experience in the retrofit services industry. Together, we share a common passion and ambition to provide a scalable solution for decarbonising the UK housing stock. We are immensely grateful to the UK Department of Energy Security and Net Zero for their faith in us.”
Lord Callanan, Minister for Energy Efficiency and Green Finance, said, “The Government has put in place long-term commitments to ensure homes across the country have greater energy efficiency to reduce bills, drive down energy use, and lower emissions. We are supporting these organisations to develop fresh and innovative ways of helping more people get better access to energy efficiency measures, such as loft insulation, double glazing and heat pumps.”
