NatWest boosts energy-saving awareness UK-wide

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With living expenses rising, NatWest’s Home Energy Hub offers practical tools to increase energy efficiency – and is calling on brokers to leverage the digital journey as part of providing well-rounded service to customers

BUILDING AWARENESS of energy efficiency for homeowners around the UK remains a top priority at NatWest. First sparked by the energy crisis a few years ago, the importance of conserving energy has only grown in the face of high inflation and the sharp spike in the cost of living. “It’s a big cost each month to keep homes warm and comfortable – especially lately,” says Lloyd Cochrane, head of mortgages, proposition, and experience at NatWest. “Anything we can do to keep down that big bill is relevant to homeowners and valuable for us. Our motivation is to help homeowners keep that expense as low as possible.”

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“Our bottom line is this: energy bills are expensive, there are things you can do to make them cheaper, and we could help you – and your customers – understand that and take action”

Lloyd Cochrane, NatWest

Energy efficiency remains a central focus because it’s a long-term problem. NatWest launched a quarterly Greener Homes Attitude Tracker in mid-2021 that asked 4,500 homeowners a series of questions, both set and variable depending on what’s topical, to create a public data indicator of people’s sentiments. But, Cochrane says, there’s still work to be done given “research continues to show the level of understanding and awareness is low.” When the survey first rolled out [Q2 2021], 14 per cent of respondents had plans to make changes to the energy efficiency of their homes within a year. Most recently [Q2 2024] it’s up to 24 per cent, but that leaves three-quarters of people who aren’t ready to take that step – or perhaps aren’t aware of the options available to them. To further understand the challenges customers face in making home energy-efficiency upgrades, the bank recently ran a small pilot with nine customers living in different kinds of properties across the UK to identify stumbling blocks to making homes more energy efficient.

“We wanted real examples of the disruption of double glazing your windows, determining whether solar panels would work, or whether they should get a battery and, if so, where? These were complex things we were hearing about in theory, and we now have some practical examples from real customer experiences and their stories.” Rounding out the quantitative index with qualitative experience allows NatWest to capture a more comprehensive picture and inform changes to its approach. That’s where NatWest’s Home Energy Hub comes in. Free on the bank’s website to anyone who’d like to use it, the platform

prompts users to input their post code and answer a few short questions about their home. It then provides a list of potential money-saving energy suggestions based on publicly available information about the property, ranging from energy-efficient lightbulbs to doing away with the gas boiler and installing a heat pump. With the first option, a homeowner could go into the store on a Saturday morning, buy the bulbs, and install them themselves – “the change may not be dramatic but it should reduce their costs,” Cochrane notes. As you go farther down the list of suggestions, the amount the household could save over time will be higher, but the upfront costs can be significant, and the disruption will be greater.

them with larger-scale upgrades. The Bank has recently brought these brands to the fore much earlier in the Home Energy Hub digital journey. NatWest found users were more likely to follow through and move on to action with this change to the hub. “We’re investing heavily in understanding and optimisation because that’s the biggest initial challenge customers face,” Cochrane says, adding that there are several incentives to help offset the cost of making a home more energy efficient. But with grants available at several levels, from national government to local authorities, the process can be confusing to navigate. The Home Energy Hub strives to simplify, outlining what homeowners are eligible for based on their location. “Once customers understand their options and what they want to do, they can turn to a number of resources we’ve compiled to help them take action.”

NatWest’s mission fits nicely with brokers’ overall goal: helping customers own their homes for the lowest cost possible. Cochrane says the first step for brokers is a mindset shift to include cost-saving tools as part of providing more rounded service to their customers. After all, part of reaching that goal includes driving down home-related bills as much as possible. Supporting brokers’ business supports NatWest’s business, and the bank views intermediaries as critical partners. Whether a broker has a client with NatWest or not, the Home Energy Hub is available to everybody, so Cochrane encourages brokers to check it out.

“Our bottom line is this: Energy bills are expensive, there are things you can do to make them cheaper, and we could help you – and your customers – understand that and take action. It’s a challenge we all have that’s relevant to any customer.”

Invoice With Euro Coins And Energy Efficiency Rate On Desk

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Published November 11, 2024

“We’re investing heavily in understanding and optimisation because that’s the biggest initial challenge customers face. Once customers understand their options ... they can turn to a number of resources we’ve compiled”

Lloyd Cochrane, NatWest

“It’s a graduated list from simple and relatively cheap to disruptive and complex, and we’re seeing a big gap there between intent and action,” Cochrane says, adding that there’s been an uptick in usage, with around a 1,000 new people a week using the hub and receiving their energy-savings plan. That’s encouraging, but still, only a handful of those people are willing and/or able to spend significant money on home upgrades. NatWest is hoping to see more customers take advantage of the next level of the digital journey – the option to have an expert home-energy assessor come to conduct a physical home assessment at a discounted price to give more tailored suggestions on how to increase energy efficiency. Once a customer has the physical plan, which is automatically uploaded to the hub, they can then connect to British Gas, TrustMark, or Wickes, which can support

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