British Gas has just launched a scheme along the lines of the Green Deal, which is designed to help reduce the upfront cost of installing clean renewable technologies.
Dubbed British Gas’s Home Energy Plan, the scheme is very similar to the Government’s flagship Green Deal, and will enable households to install energy efficiency measures at no upfront cost, including cavity wall insulation, solar panels, air source heat pumps and loft insulation.
British Gas will offer customers a fixed-term loan agreement with a fixed APR of 6.9%, with the loan being repaid through their energy bills using some of the savings they realise through the improvements. Customers will have the choice of repaying the loan over five, 10 or 15-years, which will help ensure repayments are smaller than the savings realised.
They will also be entitled to a free home survey by an energy expert and the company has already trained up 50 energy experts to provide free, no-obligation surveys for households.
Jon Kimber, the managing director of British Gas New Energy, said the premise of the Home Energy Plan was to help customers cope with the increasing costs of energy. According to British Gas the scheme would help customers save £322 on average a year.
British Gas is the first of the energy providers to launch a Green Deal-style initiative, and a spokesperson for the company said the scheme would work along the lines of the Green Deal and would see customers benefiting by investing in green measures with no upfront costs. Other payment options will also be available.
Business customers are currently not eligible to take part in the Home Energy Plan scheme.
