New owners revive Green Deal loans

The original Green Deal failed to hit its targets despite 5,600 finance plans being in place by the time it was cancelled

Installation of insulation

The Green Deal loan scheme, which was closed by the government two years ago, has been revived by a privatised version of the Green Deal Finance Company (GDFC).

Assets of the original GDFC, which folded in June 2015 because of low take-up of the home-improvement and energy-efficiency loans, was bought by Aurium Capital Markets and Greenstone Finance in January. GDFC’s chief executive, Kilian Pender, said they had received ‘a very significant amount of support from government, energy efficiency-focused organisations, manufacturers and installer organisations’, who wanted to see the scheme ‘continue where it left off’.

The original Green Deal was launched in 2013, but failed to hit its targets – although there were 5,600 finance plans in place by the time it was cancelled, and more than 10,000 properties had had measures installed via the scheme.

Householders who borrow money from the GDFC to pay for energy-efficient works repay it through their energy bills. The GDFC has raised more than £2m through the peer-to-peer finance platform Abundance Investment, which is also behind the Innovative Finance ISA.