- Cornwall Council aims to become carbon neutral. To reach this goal, 90% of homes in the area need some form of retrofit.
- To support this, the council introduced a loan scheme to help private homeowners and landlords to retrofit their properties.
- To help them understand how to upgrade their homes, the council also provides free access to our Homewise digital property tool. So far, almost 1,000 people have used it.
Key points
Client profile
Cornwall Council covers a region with over half a million people.
In 2019, the council declared a climate emergency and created a Carbon Neutral Cornwall Action Plan to become carbon neutral.
It’s been working with communities to help address climate change. This includes planting new woodland, increasing renewable energy generation, making homes more energy efficient, and reducing emissions from council activities.
Challenge
Over 90% of Cornwall’s housing stock needs some form of retrofit to meet the council’s carbon neutral ambitions.
Funding is one of the main barriers to retrofit, with current costs for Cornwall estimated to be around £9 billion.
The council realised that grant funding is often targeted at the social housing sector. This leaves a gap for those living in private rented accommodation and homeowners.
To address this, Cornwall introduced the Green Home Improvement Loan Scheme.
The scheme is available to owner occupiers and landlords in the private housing sector. Residents can apply for a loan at a fixed lower rate of interest to carry out home energy improvements.
Cornwall also found that many residents were struggling to find impartial home energy advice they could trust. This meant they didn’t know where to start when it came to making home improvements.
To encourage more people to take up the loan and upgrade their homes, Cornwall needed to educate its residents. The council started researching digital advice tools. However, it found that existing tools were complex and didn’t offer personalised advice.
Solution
While looking for a way to provide impartial advice to residents, Cornwall discovered our property tool, Homewise.
The tool offers home energy efficiency advice in minutes. By completing a simple online survey, residents and landlords get a personalised action plan with tailored recommendations to make their property more energy efficient.
Cornwall says it chose Homewise because:
- It’s good value for money. This means the council can offer the tool for free to residents.
- Compared with other options, it’s quick and easy to use.
- It has address-level data for every property, which gives residents an accurate starting point.
- Recommendations can be tailored to residents’ motivations and lifestyles.
- Residents get a clear idea of the measures they can take and the approximate costs, which helps them when looking for suppliers.
Cornwall promoted the tool to residents and landlords alongside the Green Home Improvement Loan Scheme. Residents can use their personalised Homewise report as a starting point to decide which home energy improvements to apply for through the loan.
Results
Almost 1,000 residents and landlords used Homewise in the first six months after launch.
These people have gone on to install solar panels and air source heat pumps, upgraded windows and doors, and added insulation.
In future, Cornwall plans to use Homewise as part of a suite of educational materials on energy efficiency for its residents.
We've found Homewise to be a simple to use tool that empowers residents with clear, tailored energy efficiency advice.
With 900 people already benefiting, it provides an easy starting point by outlining upgrade costs and options. This helps homeowners take meaningful steps toward decarbonisation, supporting Cornwall Council’s carbon neutral strategy.
Cabinet Member for Environment and Climate Change, Cornwall Council
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