Three in four mortgage holders would ‘likely’ protect their property from heatwaves if their lender could help them to finance upgrades, according to a new More in Common poll.
The national survey, commissioned by the UK Sustainable Investment and Finance Association (UKSIF), shows Brits’ appetite for funding these enhancements via their mortgage – as extreme weather becomes more frequent.
A total of 2852 British adults were asked how likely they would be to improve the resilience and efficiency of their homes, with measures such as “shading, air cooling, insulation, ventilation, or solar panels”, if their mortgage could help pay for them.
The results showed 74% of homeowners with a mortgage were ‘likely’ to install these upgrades if their property loan could help to pay for them, compared with just 2% who were ‘not likely at all’. Current private renters were also in favour of this arrangement, with 62% saying they would be ‘likely’ to adopt this approach, against 10% who said, ‘not likely at all’.
Overall, 58% of British adults – including private renters, homeowners with mortgages and outright property owners – said they were ‘likely’ to make these upgrades if their mortgage could help pay for them. Just 10% said they were ‘not at all likely’.
People living in Greater London, where Mayor Saddiq Khan launched the capital’s first-ever “heat plan” in June, had the highest approval for this approach, with 65% ‘likely’ to upgrade their property with these measures if their mortgage could assist with the financing.
This was followed by 63% of residents in North West England and 62% of residents in the East Midlands, who also agreed they would be ‘likely’ to complete these upgrades if their mortgage could help pay for them. The same response was given by 61% of people living in South West England, the West Midlands and Wales.
The role of a green mortgage
Home loan products known as green mortgages can go some way to meeting this consumer demand. They currently have two main functions.
First, they can be used to purchase homes that are already energy efficient, often with incentives such as lower interest rates, cashback or reduced fees. Second, they can provide additional borrowing for homeowners to improve their property’s energy performance.
Homeowners can use the second option to pay for energy-efficient technology, like heat pumps, that are partially covered by government grants. But they can also finance far more advanced measures, not covered by subsidies – like electric vehicle chargers, rainwater harvesting systems, domestic wind turbine installations and mechanical ventilation with heat recovery (MVHR).
This flexibility means they are suitable for whole home efficiency renovation projects. This type of lending is especially important for bringing down the upfront costs for homeowners, which remains one of the greatest barriers to completing comprehensive upgrades.
A mortgage for ‘climate resilience’
Climate change is not only making homes more uncomfortable and expensive to live in. It is also threatening their structural integrity due to more frequent droughts and flooding.
But with the right government support, green mortgages could be expanded to cover ‘climate resilience upgrades’ in the future. This would let homeowners borrow to improve their property’s protection against climate risks, helping to safeguard its value and durability.
This idea is proposed in a recent UKSIF and Public First report, Flooding the Market: The Climate Mortgage Trap, which highlights the growing threat climate change poses to the UK’s property market (see here). It shows 430,000 households risk becoming ‘climate mortgage prisoners’ by 2050 because of worsening extreme weather.
These homeowners won’t be able to get affordable insurance due to the threat and impact of regular flooding. They would then likely have to accept more expensive default standard variable rate (SVR) mortgages, while paying out of pocket for any further storm damage to their properties. These homes would be hard to sell, as they can’t be mortgaged or remortgaged and are unappealing to cash buyers, leaving households financially “trapped” in them.
The UK’s housing stock is also coming under increasing pressure from extreme heat. Statistics from the Association of British Insurers showed insurance firms paid out £307 million for domestic subsidence claims in 2025, up 10% (£27 million) year on year, the highest amount on record (see here).
A recent national poll, commissioned by UKSIF from More in Common, found one in three British adults feared their home value would fall due to the impacts of extreme heat (see here).
The Climate Change Committee report, ‘A Well-Adapted UK ’, also suggests 92% of existing UK homes will overheat during summers by 2050, under a 2c global warming scenario, without additional adaptation initiatives. It adds that “active cooling measures, alongside low-cost passive measures”, are more likely to be needed when retrofitting homes (see here).
Comments:
James Alexander, UKSIF CEO, said: “A home is usually someone’s most expensive asset. But increasingly, climate change is threatening their structural integrity and long-term value. More broadly, worsening flooding and extreme heat events could undermine the stability of the housing market and harm the UK’s wider economy.
“Green mortgages could be key to unlocking the finance households will need to climate-proof their properties in the coming decades.But there must be action to raise the profile and accessibility of these products, alongside improved property climate risk information, before this lending can expand significantly.”
Gareth Griffiths, Chief Executive Officer at Ecology Building Society, said: “Ecology has been helping homeowners finance energy-efficient improvements for over 40 years, through our renovation mortgage, and rewarding customers for doing so with discounts on their interest rate linked to their property’s energy performance.
“With the UK having some of the oldest housing stock in Europe, we agree that more must be done to help people access funding and support to improve their property’s energy efficiency and strengthen the resilience of their homes. It’s clear that the demand to make such changes is there and we remain ready to support more people in reducing their environmental impact and household energy costs, through mortgage funding for their home improvements.”
The Rt Hon. Baroness Northover, who is a member of the National Resilience Committee, said: “The Climate Change Committee’s latest adaptation assessment is clear that rising flood and wildfire risk will have consequences not only for individual households, but for insurers, mortgage lenders and the wider economy. More homes could become increasingly expensive to insure, lose value or prove harder to mortgage unless we act now to improve their resilience.
“This polling shows that many mortgage holders are willing to act. We therefore need much greater awareness, for example with a focus on green mortgages, so that more private capital can be directed towards climate adaptation and resilience. Doing so would not only protect household finances and preserve the value of people’s homes; it would also reduce the growing exposure of insurers, mortgage lenders and the wider financial system to climate risk.”
Amy Norman, Director at Public First, said: “Whether it is keeping cool in summer or staying dry and warm in winter, the reality is that most of our homes were built in another time, for another climate.
“Upgrading homes to cope with our climate today and in future, keeps people safe, comfortable and financially secure. It also protects the wider housing market from the growing risks of properties becoming harder to insure, mortgage or sell. Green mortgages can help, but only if government and industry come together to make resilience measures easier to finance, easier to understand, and properly recognised in the housing market.”
Adrian Ramsay, MP for Waveney Valley and Green Party spokesperson for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, said: “Britain has entered a new climate reality, and our public services are not ready for it. These were not isolated weather events, they were a real-world test of our preparedness for a hotter climate, exposing vulnerabilities across our health service, critical infrastructure, emergency response and natural environment.
“This isn’t just about hotter summers, either. It’s about whether our prisons, care homes, schools, transport and food supply can withstand the climate we’re already living in. Water security is one of Britain’s greatest long-term resilience challenges, fundamental to public health, food production, economic resilience and national security. Climate change is no longer just affecting where our food is grown, it is affecting what families can afford. The Government’s own experts have told them what’s needed, an £11 billion a year investment in resilience. Instead, we get delay after delay.
“Adaptation is not a cost, it’s an investment. Every year the Government fails to act, the bill for recovery gets bigger and the human cost gets higher. Britain needs a Heat Resilience Strategy now.”
Notes to Editors
The More in Common poll was conducted from 26 June to 29 June 2026 among 2852 people. Respondents have been weighted according to age/sex interlocked, region, 2024 General Election vote, ethnicity, and education level. It reflects the population of Great Britain (excluding Northern Ireland).
The polling question asked: “How likely, if at all, would you be to take measures that help protect your home from heatwaves and make it easier and cheaper to cool (such as shading, air cooling, insulation, ventilation, or solar panels), if your mortgage would help pay for them?”
About UKSIF:
UKSIF is a leading membership organisation that brings together the country’s sustainable investment and finance community and supports its members to expand, enhance and promote this key sector. Our more than 300 members, who have £19trn in assets under management (AUM), include investment managers, pension funds, banks, financial advisers, research providers and NGOs, among others.
Our members are active in and supportive of efforts to promote the sustainable finance agenda. Together, we work closely with policymakers and others to find new ways to overcome the barriers to the growth of sustainability and deliver progress towards decarbonisation of the economy.