Credit Unions welcome enhanced supports for Home Energy Upgrades
Posted on: 08 Feb 2022
The Irish League of Credit Unions (ILCU) welcomes today’s Government announcement of the reform of the SEAI Residential Retrofit Scheme.
“We welcome today’s announcement by the Government of changes to the household retrofit scheme. In particular, the move to multi annual funding will help bring certainty to the scheme and facilitate longer term planning for retrofit providers. The introduction of fixed grant supports and the grant support for the initial technical assessment will be very well received by home owners”, said Paul Bailey, ILCU Head of Communications.
Last year, the Irish League of Credit Unions, in conjunction with Energia and House2Home, launched the CU Greener Homes scheme, a one-stop shop for home energy upgrades. CU Greener Homes provides access to all of the information and supports needed to carry out home energy upgrades, including the initial assessment, the grant application process, the amount of low-cost credit union finance required, and full project management.
A key feature of the credit union finance under CU Greener Homes is that the loan rate is linked to the energy enhancements made to the home, with the more energy efficient improvements attracting a lower interest rate. Approved retrofit work which results in the home achieving a Building Energy Rating (BER) of A3 or better will attract a loan interest rate of 4.79% (4.9% APR*).
Paul Bailey added, “We believe that the CU Greener Homes one stop shop is ideally placed to assist homeowners to make home energy upgrades and that credit unions are ideally positioned to assist homeowners to fund the difference between the grant funding and the overall cost of the proposed works”.
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There are currently more than 50 credit unions in over 140 locations throughout Ireland participating in the CU Greener Homes scheme, with an additional 57 credit unions due to join the scheme.
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See https://cugreenerhomes.ie/