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Nationwide doubles its Green Additional Borrowing scheme

ended 05. March 2026

Nationwide is doubling the number mortgage customers who will be able to benefit from its interest-free green loans, as part of its ongoing efforts to support energy-efficient homeownership.

The 0% Green Additional Borrowing products were initially launched in June 2023 with the aim of supporting 5,000 households with a Nationwide mortgage to improve the energy efficiency of their homes. Nationwide is now committing to doubling that amount - meaning that 10,000 households will now be able to benefit from interest-free loans to fund energy-efficient home improvements.

Nationwide mortgage customers can borrow between £5,000 and £20,000 up to a maximum of 90 per cent Loan-to-Value (LTV) across a two or five-year term. Customers can apply for the additional borrowing as soon as their first mortgage payment has been taken.

  • What is your reaction to the scheme being expanded?
  • What are the positives and negatives?
  • Have you had any experience of the scheme, personally or with your clients?

Responses asap.

2 responses from the Newspage community

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Editor
Nouran Moustafa
Practice Principal & IFA at Roxton Wealth
Expanding this scheme is a positive move. Energy efficiency improvements are one of the few home upgrades that can genuinely reduce long term household costs while improving property value, so giving borrowers access to interest free funding makes practical sense.

From a client perspective, the biggest advantage is simple: 0% borrowing is extremely rare in the mortgage world. It gives homeowners a realistic way to fund improvements such as insulation, heat pumps or solar without immediately increasing their interest burden.

The only caution is that additional borrowing is still debt. Clients should ensure the improvements genuinely deliver energy savings and long-term value rather than borrowing simply because the rate is attractive.

In practice, schemes like this can be useful but awareness remains relatively low. Many homeowners still don’t realise lenders are beginning to support energy upgrades through mortgage products.
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Rohit Parmar-Mistry
Founder at Pattrn Data
0% green loans are a smart nudge, but let’s not pretend they solve the UK’s retrofit problem.

Nationwide’s scheme is practical because it meets homeowners where they are: cashflow. The downside is scale and fairness. It is capped (10,000 households), limited to existing mortgage customers, and the people who most need insulation are often the least able to take on extra borrowing. Done badly, this becomes a “nice for the already comfortable” headline.

The other risk is quality. Retrofits fail when installers cut corners or when a measure is sold that does not fit the property. If lenders want to push upgrades, they should also push verification: accredited installers, clear evidence of savings, and follow-up when performance does not match the brochure.

The Climate Change Committee has been blunt that home energy efficiency is off track. Schemes like this help, but the big missing piece is a stable, long-term plan that lets supply chains invest and households trust the outcome.