NatWest has launched a new feature that shows homeowners the energy performance certificate rating of their property on its online mortgage hub.

The high street bank says the move supports its pledge to help customers become more energy efficient, with an ambition that 50 per cent of the lender’s mortgage book is at or above EPC C, or an equivalent rating of C by 2030.

The move comes as electricity and gas bills for a typical household are set to jump by £693 a year in April, a 54 per cent increase, after regulator Ofgem last week raised price caps energy firms are subject to.

Global wholesale gas prices have risen fourfold over the last 12 months, Ofgem said.

NatWest introduced the Greener Homes Attitudes tracker last May to gain a deeper understanding of homebuyers’ preferences.

It says the tracker’s latest results found that one in five households are very concerned about the carbon emissions produced by homes in the UK.

The survey also found that one-third of UK households that are looking to buy a property over the next decade believed the EPC rating of a property was a ‘very important’ factor.

And that 63% of homeowners are planning to make green home improvements in the next decade.

NatWest head of mortgages Lloyd Cochrane says: “We know customers are becoming increasingly conscious of energy efficiency in their home, but also acknowledge there is some way to go in terms of raising awareness.

“We have developed this tool to help customers be more aware of their individual situation and we want to support them to take action in improving energy efficiency.

“With the cost of living increasing and more people working from home faced with rising energy bills, more needs to be done in raising awareness of what improving energy efficiency means for individual customers.”

Every home must have an EPC when it is built, sold or rented – this gives the property an energy efficiency rating from A or 100, the most efficient, to G or 0, the least efficient, and is valid for 10 years.