Kilkenny Credit Union welcomes enhanced supports for home energy upgrades

The Irish League of Credit Unions (ILCU) has welcomed the Government's announcement of the reform of the SEAI Residential Retrofit Scheme, and the local St Canice’s Credit Union says it is delighted to be offering the Greener Home Loan initiative to all members.

The Credit Union has seen great uptake over the last couple of months and says it looks forward to helping more members make positive upgrades to their homes.

“We welcome today’s announcement by the Government of changes to the household retrofit scheme. In particular, the move to multi annual funding will help bring certainty to the scheme and facilitate longer term planning for retrofit providers. The introduction of fixed grant supports and the grant support for the initial technical assessment will be very well received by homeowners”, said Paul Bailey, ILCU Head of Communications. 

Last year, the Irish League of Credit Unions, in conjunction with Energia and House2Home, launched the CU Greener Homes scheme, a one-stop shop for home energy upgrades. CU Greener Homes provides access to all the information and supports needed to carry out home energy upgrades, including the initial assessment, the grant application process, the amount

of low-cost credit union finance required, and full project management. 

A key feature of the credit union finance under CU Greener Homes is that the loan rate is linked to the energy enhancements made to the home, with the more energy efficient improvements attracting a lower interest rate. Approved retrofit work which results in the home achieving a Building Energy Rating (BER) of A3 or better will attract a loan interest rate of 4.79% (4.9% APR*).