Government backed solar loans arrive in Lancashire

From September 2026 the Warm Homes Loan Scheme cuts the interest on loans for solar panels, batteries and heat pumps. Clitheroe based Energy Giants has partnered with Bolton credit broker Neo Loans so Lancashire homeowners and landlords can get the quote and the finance in one conversation.

The obstacle to solar was never the rate afterwards. It was the money up front. A typical semi with panels and a battery is an £8,000 to £11,000 job, and for most households that has meant savings, a further advance on the mortgage, or waiting.

The Warm Homes Loan Scheme, which opens its first consumer phase this month, is the first government scheme aimed squarely at that. It does not lend to households and it does not give them a grant. Instead the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero pays participating lenders a capital grant of up to 20 per cent of each eligible loan, on condition the saving is passed on as a lower interest rate. Published guidance points to products between zero and three per cent, with terms from three years. The actual rate is set by each lender.

The rules are unusually open. There is no income threshold, no minimum energy rating and no restriction on property type, so a house at band E qualifies as readily as one already at C. Owner occupiers and private landlords borrowing personally are both eligible. Loans are capped per measure: £15,000 for solar PV, a separate £15,000 for a battery, and £20,000 for an air source heat pump before the Boiler Upgrade Scheme grant is deducted.

There is one catch. The lender needs a quote for an eligible measure from a MCS certified installer, and the grant is only paid once the installation is verified. So the survey has to come first, not the loan.

Energy Giants, based at the Former Ambulance Station in Clitheroe with offices in Manchester and London, has built its process around that order. The company surveys the property in person, produces an itemised quote with an MCS performance estimate, and, if the customer asks, passes their details to Neo Loans, an FCA authorised credit broker specialising in home improvement finance, who takes the finance conversation from there.

Miles Sharples, managing director of Energy Giants, said: "Most people we survey already know solar makes sense for their roof. What stopped them was finding eight thousand pounds. This scheme changes that, and pairing it with a regulated broker who understands it means nobody is left to work out the lending market on their own."

Energy Giants is not a lender or credit broker and does not arrange finance. Neo Loans Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

The company delivers solar, battery storage, insulation and whole house retrofit across Lancashire and the North West, and retrofit programmes for councils and housing associations across the UK, including a £1.3m Warm Homes programme for Aspire Housing in Staffordshire.

Full details of the scheme, the loan caps and how to start are at energygiants.co.uk/warm-homes-loan-scheme