The government has been told to raise the landlord cost cap to £10,000 to increase the number of private rental sector properties that have improved energy efficiency.
The call has come from the housing committee of the London Assembly, which is chaired by Green councillor Sian Berry.
She has written to new Housing Secretary Michael Gove and London Mayor Sadiq Khan saying that an increase on the landlord cap - which is currently £3,500 including VAT - is a key way of making London a zero carbon city by 2030.
She wants to decarbonise all of London’s 3.5m homes by upgrading and retrofitting, and Is calling on Khan to bring together private sector landlords and tenants to look at barriers to retrofitting and how central or local government could overcome them.
Berry says: “We have a responsibility to do everything we can to make Londoners’ homes zero carbon and we can’t ignore our existing homes; these account for a third of the city’s greenhouse gas emissions alone. A full upgrade to zero carbon standards is an enormous task that will require political and financial support if the Mayor is to meet his 2030 carbon target.
“The government must commit either to fully funding London’s ambition for zero carbon homes or giving us the powers to raise our own finance. In turn, the Mayor must work with private sector landlords and tenants to find and overcome any barriers to retrofitting.
“The world is in a race against time to fight climate change, and action on existing homes can no longer be put off or tackled without proper commitment from our leaders. London’s future generations need action from us right now to save them from the perils of the climate crisis.”
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Zero carbon ?
When mankind only contributes just 3% to the co2 output , and co2 isn't that bad after all
Just another excuse for a tax to destroy the middle/working class
If LLs are to be expected to spend up to £10k to improve the EPC that measurement MUST be a fair reflection of a property's energy efficiency. At the moment is is based on assumptions and guesses conducted as a tick box exercise, and is so opaque that having spent £10k you still have no idea if you will reach the desired EPC. If you do improve the EPC to a level that allows you to rent it out there is no guarantee that the next EPC will as the algorithm keeps changing! It is like throwing darts at a moving target, blindfolded! LLs will not spend this sort of capital without some guarantee of the result.
The surveyor who produces the EPC may actually tell you, specifically, what can be done to improve the EPC rating.
For one property, my surveyor suggested that loft insulation, a hot water cylinder thermostat (tapstat) and extra cylinder covering would move the property up a level. These were all done successfully.
Replacing the boiler and having cavity wall insulation would also be beneficial, but were not appropriate at the time.
I have to renew ALL the windows in one of my houses In Twickenham. Cost is coming in at £12,000.....
Will it improve the EPC (and I will lag the loft too).
Would that mean tte Govt. will give me £10,000 to that improvement?
There needs to be proper advice on the best way to achieve this for older properties. Shoving cladding on the front of a Victorian terrace makes it look ludicrous and results in damp issues, when the energy bills for these properties are not high in the first place.
There is also no point forcing LLs to upgrade their properties when the owner-occupier sector does nothing! Rising energy costs will make everyone want to cut their energy usage so perhaps what we all need is more carrot & less stick!
What we need is a comprehensive national strategy for retrofit. PAS2035 tells us how to complete the work but the whole concept, and costs, of deep retrofit need to be fully explained to the public. The CCC's own estimate is for an average cost of £24,000 for older properties - not small change for anyone.
Any plans should include industry training to ensure there are enough qualified fitters available to actually carry out the work. If landlords are being forced to spend £10k per property as Sian Berry recommends then they must know that their money is targeted towards the most effective measures and that work is being done by people who know what they are doing. Currently this is far from clear.
so really, instead of a Dept of levelling up with Housing tagged on as an after thought what we really need is a Ministry for Making our Housing Fit for the Future!
Unfortunately Boris is just box ticking for climate change!
I'm going to wait and see what happens nearer the time, I'll turn 72 in 2025 if I'm unable to rent a property it will be sold in an auction, not something I want to do but most of my properties were purchased for peanuts in the 90s what ever I get for them will see me out in comfort , once again the good tenants loose out .
We have open borders and landlords are a convenient scapegoat for the problems caused by mass immigration. Peerhaps the grreen can shut down the volcano in La Palma which is spewing out thousands 0f tons of deadly gasses
“The world is in a race against time to fight climate change"
The brainwashing is obviously working as these people really do believe this nonsense.
its all bollox--FTM
Of that 3% , China contributes 28% and increasing every year and the uk 1.1%
Greta never mentions that does she ?
An inconvenient truth as al gore once said …
Dear Sian
From a recent survey
"Of the 4.5 million private rented homes in the UK, it is estimated that 1.7 million properties will never achieve an EPC rating of C or higher. "
As the chair of the housing committee, can I assume that you're ready for the queue outside your offices once you enact this latest bonkers proposal?
.... thought not.
Let me guess, you'll have swanned off to some other green, gravy train job somewhere else, and your successor will be sending out emails to the remaining private landlords, imploring then to provide housing to all those that you made homeless!!
I'm not sure you'll appreciate the irony. Green wokies like you don't do irony.
#Grumpy Dog
Well said and so right.......And when will these people realise what damage they are causing?
Build back better - I guess they're going to demolish all the grade 1 and 2 mansions in London and build epc a rabbit hutches in the future ?
This is a box ticking exercise, with EPCs not fit for purpose. Just because the Government raises the threshold does not mean LLs will spend the money. I for one will be selling up probably to the private housing sector. As they don't need to have raise EPCs Boris' tick box exercise will fail and the rental market will shrink so instead of solving one issue Boris has created two.
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