It has been announced that Lloyds Bank has pledged to a lend sum of £1bn to assist in the incentivisation for developers to incorporate further green credentials across their projects. The loans, which are to be issued directly to property owners, are to be become anywhere up to 20bps cheaper after key environmental improvements have been made to the buildings.

The minimum size for tickets has been stated to sit at £10m, which will primarily be seen to support refurbishment projects, where there are shorter lead times present and the benefits can be seen as developers fulfil pre-defined green criteria for credentials. As for the remaining loans, these are to be offered on a similar basis to those traditionally offered by Lloyds, with terms of three to five years being considered.

Of course, a key benefit for developers sits within the simple fact that the loans provided by Lloyds will feed directly into projects which can, firstly increase the value of properties, yet also allow for improved operational standards from an environmental perspective. As such, it is hoped that developers will see the combination of these benefits and appreciate the offer of support from Lloyds in allowing them to undertake such projects at greater affordability to themselves.

On estimate, it has been predicted by Lloyds that the plan could see reductions of circa 110,000 tonnes of carbon emissions – this figure sitting in line with the approximated energy use of greater than 22,000 homes. And of course, with the development of further homes and infrastructure being a keen focus for developers and the government alike, plans such as these to minimise the increased carbon footprint of doing so are integral to our future.

Lloyds’ Global Head of Commercial Real Estate, John Feeney highlighted the goals of Lloyds with regard to increased incentivisation for organisations to shape up their assets into an efficient state. He added: “More often than not that is going to be those assets that are reasonable well performing and where investment in reasonably easy wins could get to a much more efficient place.”