Landlords face having to upgrade their properties to a minimum energy standard within five years – or have them banned from the market.
Around 30 organisations have called for a minimum energy efficiency standard to be legally required of all private rented homes in 2016, and are demanding that a new law be brought in.
Over 180 MPs have so far supported the demand – which would affect an estimated 150,000 rental properties – via an Early Day Motion.
The new law would make it an offence to market rental properties with an EPC rating lower than E, with both landlords and letting agents facing prosecution.
The organisations demanding the change include charities such as Child Poverty Action Group, local authorities, consumer groups and environmental campaigners including Friends of the Earth and the World Wildlife Fund.
If they get their way, the new law would accelerate the Government’s existing proposed timetable by two years.
The Energy Bill, due back before Parliament in the autumn and which ushers in the Green Deal, has had a new clause added to it, outlawing colder rental properties by 2018.
But the campaigners say that this is unacceptably late and that the Green Deal proposal leaves too much to chance.
They also argue it has loopholes. They claim that as long as landlords undertake the improvements for which finance is available under the Green Deal, they would be able to carry on letting out unacceptably cold properties indefinitely: this is because the property might not have been improved to the E banding on an EPC.
The campaigners also say that the Green Deal proposal to allow tenants to ask the landlord for energy improvements would lead to tenants being evicted.
The groups therefore are arguing for a new law requiring basic standards of insulation and heating in private rented properties.
Audrey Gallacher, director of energy at Consumer Focus, one of the groups calling for the change, said: “With almost 12 million people expected to be living in fuel poverty when the latest round of price rises hits, tackling this problem is a major issue. Private rented housing is among the coldest and most likely to leak heat – meaning bigger bills and a greater risk to renters’ health.
“Bringing this requirement into law would save private renters almost £500 a year on average off their energy bill and cut carbon emissions by almost 200 million tonnes a year. Current legislation isn’t enough to make this happen, so we need the UK Government to act to help the many vulnerable households affected.”
We asked Consumer Focus to comment on speculation that landlords would simply sell properties that they felt were too expensive to upgrade, bringing an influx of cold homes into private owner-occupation – private owners being under no compulsion to upgrade their properties.
Gallacher responded: “The need to invest in energy efficiency might put off some landlords, particularly those with older properties. However, we hope responsible landlords will recognise the benefits, not only to their tenants’ health and safety from warmer and cheaper to run homes, but also the long-term improvement to their property, its saleable value and their ability to rent it out.
“Landlords must start to view these energy efficiency moves as standard health and safety requirements, and incorporate them into their renovation and maintenance programmes, to sustain their property’s marketability.
“Older housing can be more difficult to make energy efficient. However, Green Deal finance will remove the barrier of upfront cost, and there will be additional support for properties with solid walls. We also urge landlords to, where possible, take advantage of current insulation offers for loft and cavity wall insulation.
“We would also like to see action to remove barriers for leaseholders; clear planning guidance for listed buildings and conservation areas which are harder to treat; and improved Energy Performance Certificates which make the value of energy efficiency clear to tenants and buyers.”
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Comments
This has the distinct smell of civil servants making new rules to keep themselves in jobs..this has been the way of our governance for the last 20 years..stuff the need for a law..just create it anyway.
The green zealots see a soft target, as landlords are so widely despised, and look likely to get their way. We hav e a ludicrous situation where rented properties are far better protected as regards fire safety, gas safety and now insulation than owner-occupied, whereas homeowners are under no obligations at all to protect themselves against fire, gassing themselves or having to contribute a penny towards carbon reductions. Instead, all the burdens are placed on new houses and rentals.
The vast majority of existing building stock in this country won't achieve an E-rating: it's perfectly possible for even new-build to be rated C, so E is much too high.
To a certain degree I understand what they are trying to do here but come on......“Landlords must start to view these energy efficiency moves as standard health and safety requirements" are they for real, health and safety? For there to be a health and safety issue on the efficiency of a property we are then only talking about the rogue landlords who make up 1% of the PRS and expect people to live in a pit., and do you think that these rogue landlords that don't follow ANY legal requirements are going to take any notice of this? No of course not so once again the minority give the government a reason to effectively find a new way to tax landlords and bring more money in to the economy and create jobs just like selective licensing which has had now effect at all in my area but costs hundreds of pounds per property for me to be compliant.
This is madness, I have a grade 2 listed cottage. how on earth can you upgrade this. Rip out the windows and doors and replace with uPVC, externally insulate and render, solar panels on the roof. Get real
It is obvious the 30 organisation looking for a rating of E as a minimum know very little about EPC ratings and building types. While modern buildings are ok, many built before the 1970s can not be insulated easily or cheaply, efficient and cheap fuel is also a problem. With the current average rating being a D, E is simple too high a target.