Skipton launches first green lending range

Two-year trackers are available for both residential and buy-to-let borrowers. The residential product is priced at 1.09% up to 90% LTV, and the buy-to-let product is available at 1.39% up to 75% LTV. Both have a minimum loan of £5,000 and a maximum loan of £50,000, and come with no early repayment charges.

From installing solar panels, new windows and doors, through to biomass boilers and ground source heat pumps and much more, the two new products offer Skipton’s customers flexibility when considering how to make their homes more energy efficient and sustainable.

In recognition that people will likely want to retrofit properties alongside more broader home improvements, Skipton asks a minimum of 50% of the loan amount is used for greening work.

As well as launching these products, Skipton has signalled its intent to help green UK homes by becoming a certified member of the Green Finance Institute’s Coalition for the Energy Efficiency of Buildings (CEEB).

Charlotte Harrison, Skipton’s head of mortgage products, said: “In the UK, buildings are responsible for around 23% of total greenhouse gas emissions, with many of our homes scoring low Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) ratings too. We’ve challenged ourselves at Skipton to play a leading role in greening the UK housing market and so supporting customers with retrofitting their homes is a crucial first step.

“Our two new green additional borrowing loans make retrofitting accessible and affordable for our customers and landlords. Crucially, we know that it’s often much easier to retrofit as part of more broader home improvements, so with our green additional borrowing we ask that at least 50% of the loan amount is used for green home improvements and the remainder can be spent on the wider work to enable it. This approach means that if a customer wants to install a new kitchen, with our help they can also install new insulation or more energy efficient windows in the room too.”