Nationwide Building Society is offering discounts of up to 69 basis points on further advances to help existing borrowers make green home improvements.

Rates on loans of between £5,000 and £25,000 start from 1 per cent and borrowers must use at least half of the money for energy efficiency measures in order to benefit from the discounted rates.

Advances are available up to 90 per cent loan-to-value.

The launch of the Green Additional Borrowing deals form part of Nationwide’s £1bn pledge to reduce the carbon footprint of UK homes.

Environmentally-friendly home improvements might include installing solar panels, boiler upgrades, fitting charging stations for electric cars or insulating walls and lofts.

Nationwide recently called on the government to consider reforming property taxes to incentivise making improvements to energy efficiency as well as setting requirements on housebuilders to construct low-carbon homes.

Members can borrow between £5,000 and £25,000, up to a maximum of 90 per cent LTV. At least 50 per cent of the loan must be used to fund non-structural, energy-efficient home improvements. There are also no restrictions on suppliers – members are able to select any national or local firm when making the improvements.

Nationwide director of mortgages Henry Jordan says: “It’s becoming ever clearer there is an urgent need to reduce the carbon emissions from our homes. 

“We believe meaningful incentives are the only realistic way to help people make their homes more sustainable, which is why we today launched our new Green Additional Borrowing product.

“With more than 1.5 million homes on our mortgage balance sheet, we believe offering this new loan can make a real difference as we play our part in helping to tackle the climate crisis and help members to do the same.”

Rate cuts

Separately, Nationwide has cut rates on selected two, three and five-year fixed rates at 60 per cent LTV by up to 15bps.

Three and five-year rates for purchase and remortgage have reduced by 10bps to 1.44 per cent with £999 fee, while those with no fee have been cut by 5bps t to 1.69 per cent. 

Three and five-year fixed rates for switchers and further advances have fallen by 15bps to 1.39 per cent with £999 fee, while those with no fee have been cut by 5ps to 1.69 per cent.

Nationwide has increased its two-year fixed rate at 95 per cent LTV from 3.14 per cent to 3.19 per cent with no fee and from 2.94 per cent to 3.09 per cent with a £999 fee.