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Leeds Building Society
Case study

Leeds Building Society

Leeds Building Society can help customers save an average of £339 on their annual energy bills with our digital advice tool.

Key points

  • Leeds Building Society approached us to help its customers make energy efficiency upgrades at home.
  • We developed a bespoke digital Home Energy Saving Tool to give its customers tailored, impartial and credible advice.
  • Customers can save an average of £339 on their energy bills and 778kg of carbon dioxide a year by following the advice.

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Client profile

With over 900,000 members, Leeds Building Society is the fifth largest building society in the UK. It’s helped generations of people to save money and buy homes for the last 150 years.

As a mutual, the lender is owned by and run entirely in the interests of its members. It offers a wide and award-winning range of savings accounts and mortgages to help people save money and to buy their own homes.

Challenge

Supporting a fair transition to net zero is key to Leeds Building Society’s purpose of supporting sustainable and long-term home ownership. As part of this, the lender is encouraging customers to make more sustainable choices for their homes.

Leeds is the first lender in its field to lend more to people buying energy efficient homes. It wanted to extend this to people with existing mortgages who could reduce their energy bills by making home energy efficiency improvements. To support this work, it needed a source of credible energy advice to offer its customers.

Solution

After seeing our work with other finance organisations, Leeds Building Society approached us to provide expert advice to its customers. We created a bespoke digital advice tool, adapting our Home Energy Efficiency Tool to match Leeds Building Society’s branding.

Backed by the latest data, Leeds Building Society helps customers assess the energy performance of their homes. Customers get a tailored action plan with practical advice to make their homes more energy efficient. They can personalise it further by matching it to their motivations and budget.

Once customers have accessed their plans, they can learn more about the lending programmes available to support any home improvements. This allows Leeds Building Society to signpost its customers to the next best steps and reach its sustainability goals.

Results

Customer impact

  • The digital energy advice tool has been shared with members on the Leeds Building Society newsletter list.
  • 55% of homeowners had the potential to improve their energy performance certificate (EPC) rating by one band (for example, from C to B).
  • 8% of homeowners could improve their EPC rating by two bands (for example, from D to B).
  • Customers using the tool can save an average of £339 on their energy bills and 778kg of carbon dioxide a year.

Business impact

By working with us, Leeds Building Society is confident that its customers can get trusted, impartial advice. This supports the lender’s wider environmental, social, and governance activities.

Future plans

Leeds Building Society plans to build out the customer journey to measure the impact of the energy efficiency upgrades. This will allow it to report on EPC uplifts, energy efficiency improvements and carbon savings.

According to research by the lender, people are increasingly interested in making home energy efficiency improvements. However, the majority have little understanding of the work and cost needed to improve EPC ratings.

In the future, Leeds Building Society plans to encourage landlords to use the tool. It wants to be well-placed to support landlords financially to make upgrades to their rental properties.

“Working with Energy Saving Trust was a really pleasant experience with quick answers and support to meet our needs. The association with Energy Saving Trust means we can give our customers independent, impartial information with confidence. We can help them with tailored guidance to save money on their energy bills and save carbon at the same time.”

Richard Rothwell, commercial development manager, Leeds Building Society

Looking for expert home energy advice for your customers?

Get in touch today to find out how we can support you.

Contact us

Last updated: 23 August 2024