The award comes as part of the rollout of the Government’s £20m scheme and will see the bank working in partnership with ThermaFY Eco Solutions, which provides specialist software designed to detect any heat loss, poor insulation or equipment failure in heating systems.

Ashman will leverage this solution to develop a product for the buy-to-let (BTL) mortgage market, known as Impact Buy to Let (IBTL).

The product will go beyond EPC ratings, empowering landlords with granular property specific data to create a net zero road map and provide added value to the tenant with crucial energy consumption data.

Through the grant, Ashman is responding to the need for landlords to improve energy efficiency with new building standards set to move from EPC-E to EPC-B by 2030 – currently the median energy efficiency rating in the UK is band D.

The product, which will be piloted in the second half of this year, will assess the retrofitting works needed to enhance the energy efficiency of a property now and in the future, providing landlords with verified data on how they can be improved based on Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) score protocol.

Landlords will also be provided the evidence on the overall effect on decarbonisation of the asset, ensuring they have the knowledge to prioritise and manage the phasing of the required work.

Ashman Bank chief commercial officer Caroline Luxmore comments: “Convincing landlords to invest in energy efficiency has been notoriously hard as it is often seen as a huge expense with little knowledge of the impact they could have or where to start”.

She adds: “This grant will allow us to develop a digital product that will lead to property owners having the data and insight they need to manage retrofitting works and understand the impact on energy they will have”.