Birmingham City Council refusing loans to make homes greener

• Mar. 4 by Tamar (2)

Birmingham City Council have refused to offer loans for property owners in the West Midlands area to install renewable energy systems in their homes.

Following a vast amount of lobbying, the government has made a decision to introduce feed-in-tariffs encouraging property owners to generate their own electricity and heat.

From the 1st of April 2010, UK property owners will be able to acquire a large sum of money from the government through generating renewable energy in their properties.

For property owners living in Birmingham however, these loans may have to be found elsewhere, from companies such as the Energy Saving Trust or the Carbon Trust who are both eager to set the wheels in motion to secure these financial systems.

Birmingham City Council have stated that they are currently reluctant to offer any loans as a result of the current financial climate.

According to ‘Ownergy’ a company, which claims to help the public ‘make money by making energy’, these feed-in-tariffs will rely on property owners installing systems which have the ability to generate electricity and heat.

Scott Mclean, marketing director of Ownergy, stated that these systems are designed more for ordinary use with innumerable benefits to be made:

There is over one thousand pounds to be made!

Although the installation fee may be large, the government has this week promised to offer ‘green loans’ to low income houses through local councils, which are then repayable through the money made by the energy systems.

These loans are linked to the property enabling the owner to be free to sell the property on.

Tariffs

Better known as Clean Energy Cashback, the tariff enables not only the environment to benefit but property owners also in a variety of ways. To begin with property owners can save money on their electricity by way of the renewable energy system.

Furthermore, the electricity generated by these systems can be made and sold back to the electricity grid for a large sum of money and finally the government will reward these owners financially.  This sum of money can be used to pay off the loan used to install the systems over approximately 7 years.

Additionally, the government has announced another tariff to be introduced in April 2011 named the Renewable Heat Incentive focusing on renewable energy sources generating heat. These tariffs combined will not only benefit property owners but will prove to be incredibly effective in the struggle to serve the environment positively.

The Council’s promise

Birmingham City Council has promised to provide Birmingham property owners with contacts offering loans for the installations and hope to offer some financial systems in future years.