Warm Homes Loan: Borrow Up to £15,000 for Solar Panels

Three things from the past week for anyone with a roof to look after. Government-backed loans for solar panels and batteries opened on 28 October, a High Court judgment shows how a roofer’s insurance can fail over a blowtorch, and Storm Boelo followed Storm Austen with the strongest winds of the autumn so far.

Warm Homes Loans open: up to £15,000 for solar panels

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero opened the Warm Homes Loan Scheme on 28 October, after publishing a factsheet the day before. It offers government-backed low-interest and, from some lenders, interest-free loans for solar panels, battery storage, heat pumps and a few other technologies, with repayments spread over up to 30 years in some cases. The maximum loan is £15,000 for solar panels and £15,000 for a battery, £20,000 for an air-to-water heat pump and £35,000 for a ground source heat pump. The government says rates are up to 5% lower than regular bank loans, and gives an example: borrowing £10,000 at 8% over seven years costs around £155 a month today, and the scheme could save up to £285 a year on repayments.

You must own the home, it must be in the UK and it must be residential. You apply to a lender, not the government: directly, through an installer or retailer, or through your mortgage provider, and the lender runs its usual credit and affordability checks. Ten lenders are taking part at launch: HomeServe Finance (with E.On), Hometree Finance, The Money Co-op, Propensio, Secure Trust Bank, Selina Finance, South Manchester Credit Union, Sunsave, Tandem Bank and This Bank. Most had not published rates when Roofing Today checked; The Money Co-op was offering £7,500 to £25,000 at 2.7% APR and South Manchester Credit Union up to £15,000 at 3.6%. The work must be done by an installer certified under the Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS), you cannot do it yourself, and you may be picked at random for an audit afterwards. A heat pump loan can sit alongside a Boiler Upgrade Scheme grant of up to £9,000, but two government schemes cannot pay for the same improvement.

Two points before you sign. Panels are meant to stay on a roof for decades, so if the roof covering is near the end of its life, get it surveyed first: re-roofing later means paying to take the panels off and put them back. And loans like this draw scammers. The government’s own advice is to compare quotes and the total amount repayable, keep the quote, finance agreement, invoice and MCS certificate, and report suspected fraud to Warm Homes Counter Fraud at WHLScounterfraud@energysecurity.gov.uk. Our solar panels and your roof guide covers the roof checks, roof repair grants explains what help exists for the roof itself, and roofing scams lists the doorstep tactics to refuse. Sources: GOV.UK scheme page, DESNZ factsheet and Roofing Today.

A roofer’s fire cover can fail over a missed hot-work step

On 26 October Judge Pearce ruled in the High Court in a dispute between Attleys Roofing and its insurer, QBE UK. On 27 April 2023 the firm was doing lead roofing work with an oxyacetylene torch at Horris Hill Preparatory School in Newbury, and after the roofers finished, a fire broke out and badly damaged a school building. Attleys’ liability policy listed specific precautions for working with a naked flame: a named person responsible for fire safety, a check of the area for anything combustible, firefighting equipment on hand, and continuous monitoring of the work area for an hour after the work ended.

The judge held that those listed steps were absolute conditions of cover, so even an innocent or careless failure to follow them could put the insurance at risk, not only a reckless one. The court has not yet decided whether Attleys actually breached them, or whether the Insurance Act 2015 stops QBE relying on a breach that could not have increased the risk of fire.

This matters to you if a roofer is going to use a flame on your house: torch-on felt on a flat roof, or some leadwork. If the roofer’s insurer can refuse to pay, a fire claim can end up with your own home insurer, or with you. Ask how they handle hot work: who checks the area, whether there is an extinguisher on the roof, and whether someone stays to watch for an hour after the torch goes off. Ask to see their public liability certificate, and ask whether a cold-applied system would suit the job instead. Our guides to flat roof materials, felt roof repair costs and questions to ask a roofer help with that conversation. Source: ICLG.

Storm Boelo follows Storm Austen

Storm Austen, the first named storm of the season, brought gusts of 76mph at St Mary’s Airport on the Isles of Scilly, 74mph at Aberporth and 71mph at Culdrose in Cornwall on Friday 23 October, according to the Met Office. Storm Boelo followed at the other end of the country, with amber wind warnings for Saturday night and Sunday, 24 and 25 October, covering mainland Scotland, parts of Northern Ireland and the far north of England. The Met Office forecast gusts of 60 to 70mph widely in the amber area and up to 80mph on exposed coasts, with 50 to 60mph possible elsewhere. More yellow wind warnings followed on Monday and Tuesday before high pressure was forecast to bring calmer weather from Wednesday.

Two storms in two days is a good reason to look at your roof from the ground this week, while it is calm: slipped or missing tiles and slates, a patch that looks different from the rest, loose ridge or verge pieces, and gutters full of debris. Photograph any damage before it is touched, tell your insurer early, and get a temporary repair if water is getting in. Our guides to storm damage roof repair, emergency roof repairs and what home insurance covers take you through it. Sources: Met Office on Storm Boelo and the week’s forecast.