Birmingham City Council are set to become one of the first authorities to set up a scheme using the Government’s Green Deal initiative and the good news is that property investors with an interest in landlord insurance quotes have been invited to take part.
The scheme, named Birmingham Energy Savers (BES) envisages handing out loans to households which will then be used to upgrade the energy efficiency of the building. The loans will be repaid via the savings on energy bills and importantly the loans will stay with the house and not the individual. Birmingham Council expects private landlords, social homes and owner occupiers to take part in the scheme and are now getting down to the serious business of picking a delivery partner.
At the moment four companies are in the running including energy providers, investment companies and the well known Carillion group. All the prospective partners are keen to work with BES and now many local housing associations are looking to come on board. BES has been approached by 11 local associations including the Accord Group and the Sanctuary Group.
BES expect to borrow around £75 million in the first three years of the scheme which they believe will be enough to implement energy efficiency improvements to over 15,000 homes some of which will be held in the private sector. They have also applied for a further £25 million of funding from the Government’s Energy Company Obligation fund. BES hopes that the scheme will be spread out to over 200,000 homes in the West Midlands in the next fifteen years.