Deadline: 14-Dec-22
The Green Home Finance Accelerator (GHFA) Competition is now open for applications to support organisations operating in, or interested in entering, the UK green home finance market.
GHFA will support the design, development and piloting of a range of innovative green finance products and services that incentivise domestic energy efficiency and low carbon heating retrofit, for both owner occupiers and private landlords.
The competition places a particular emphasis on novel products and services which the market is unlikely to deliver on its own, and which will target consumer segments typically less engaged with energy efficiency and low carbon heating retrofit. It will do this by supporting finance providers to overcome the barriers to innovation posed by high initial research and development costs, lack of energy efficiency and low carbon heating expertise, and lack of supply chain contacts, in an underdeveloped green finance market.
Funded projects will be expected to contribute toward achieving each of the following GHFA programme objectives:
- Develop and pilot a range of innovative green finance products that enable home energy efficiency/low carbon heating/micro-generation improvements.
- Develop capability among finance providers in the design, development, and commercialisation of green finance products.
- Develop partnerships between lenders, investors, energy efficiency, low carbon heating and property value supply chains.
- Investigate and understand the consumer barriers and motivators for energy efficiency, low carbon heating and micro-generation investment.
- Help to reduce consumer barriers to finance domestic low carbon heating, energy efficiency, and micro-generation measures.
- Establish an evidence base to enable effective design and development of further green finance propositions and inform future policy development.
Funding Information
The total requested grant for the Discovery Phase is a minimum £50,000 and must not exceed £200,000.
Eligibility Criteria
To be eligible to apply for the GHFA grant competition, applicants must meet the following criteria:
- The project must be led by a UK-based organisation (UK-based is defined as an organisation that has an establishment or subsidiary registered in the UK). At least 50% of the project activities, as measured by total eligible project costs, must be conducted in the UK, and any product pilot activities must take place in the UK with UK consumers.
- Projects must be delivered by individual UK based organisations (sole applicants) or by a consortium of UK based project partners led by a UK based organisation (consortium applicants).
- Research organisations are eligible to lead projects and receive grant funding. However, all applications must demonstrate how they will lead to a pilot of a commercially viable green finance product. Should the proposal not include a finance provider at the initial Discovery Phase, they expect applicants to set out how they intend to recruit a suitable finance partner or partners during the Discovery Phase to enable a green finance product to be successfully piloted during the Pilot Phase.
For more information, visit https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/green-home-finance-accelerator