Green mortgages ''not massively effective''

Green mortgages may not be incredibly effective in terms of helping the environment, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML).

The idea of such a mortgage is that the lender will make some sort of contribution to charities which support green initiatives, vow not to work with businesses which pollute or only finance the houses that are energy efficient.

Bernard Clarke, the spokesperson for the CML, said: "Clearly lenders are keen to do what they can to address the issues but what should be understood is that mortgage finance could have a very limited role in all of this."

He added that council tax instead could be used as a tool to help with energy efficiency, as could tax breaks for builders constructing the homes.

There are a few green mortgages on offer in the UK. The Norwich and Peterborough building society has an offer for new builds which meet energy efficiency targets with the society planting 40 trees over the first five years of each loan.


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