Another council is offering landlords financial assistance in improving energy efficiency in their investment properties.
North Norfolk District Council has won £3.85m of taxpayers’ money to provide energy efficiency improvement works to homes occupied by low-income households within Norfolk.
The grant is aimed at supporting low income residents to reduce their energy bills and increase the thermal comfort of their homes through a subsidy towards increasing the energy efficiency of their property.
Landlords could could get a two-thirds subsidy for works to improve the energy efficiency of their property if their tenants are on gross household incomes of £30,000 or less.
This grant is aimed at residents who have properties with a low energy rating - EPC bands E, F or G.
The grant will go towards the cost of works to better insulate the home, which can include loft cavity wall and external wall insulation if the property is suitable.
Also available under the scheme, properties can benefit from low carbon energy by replacing an inefficient heating system with a renewable air source heat pump.
Council leader Tim Adams says: “Energy bills are soaring and low-income households, facing fuel poverty and hardship. If you want to keep your energy bills low and reduce your carbon emissions, installing insulation in your home is one of the best ways to keep the heat in, and cold out.
“This grant is only available until March 2023, so we want to sure as many people as possible in North Norfolk take advantage of what is available to them.”
The funding is part of the government’s sustainable warmth programme.
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How are landlords supposed to know if a household has a gross income of less than £30000? Does it mean TOTAL gross income or gross EARNED income?
The only time we ask about income is when referencing before a tenant moves in.
After that unless we have a single tenant working for a company that is known to pay close to minimum wage it's almost impossible to guess a household gross income.
A couple working full time in minimum wage jobs will exceed £30000 as will a family with a UC top up. A recently qualified graduate may well be on less than £25000 for a couple of years while a similar age tradesperson who has worked since leaving school is more likely to be on over £30000.
If funding is going to be available let's at least make qualifying for it realistic.
So once again, the people who have done nothing get a handout, whilst those who spend their own money on improvements for their tenants are just expected to keep shelling out more money as the target is raised!
And if the EPC is below an E it has been illegal to rent out for over 2 years - so where is the enforcement?
I suggest burning your bills especially the council tax ones , that will heat your home and help you remain carbon neutral … /s
Let us see when we get close to 2025 if any of the other councils offer anything similar, I still see me exiting the market around 2026 to maximise my CGT. In a strange twist of fate, the tenants who earn the least in the future and live in low EPC properties will be able to apply for a grant to help the landlord upgrade the property….. but if a landlord has a tenant on a decent income, they pay for the upgrade themselves!! Who thought that those on benefits would, in the long run, save the landlord a whole heap of cash.
Council leader Tim Adams you have got it so wrong, insulation does not cut the cost of energy bills. It is a myth, a false statement! Yes common sense would say if you insulate the property or fit A rated boilers you should save but in practice it does not happen. I have had installation and energy conservation measures carried out in many of my HMOs and it has not made a difference to the energy bills . How do I know because I read my gas and electric meters every week and there is no change in the energy used. I wish it did but unfortunately I cannot identify any change in energy used. The only thing that is true about energy conservation is the first three letters.
Fellow HMO landlords one of the few thing that saves on energy bills is to fit prepay electric meters. to HMO rooms. I find the electric bill halves as soon as I fit prepaid meters in my HMOs.
Jim Haliburton
The HMO daddy
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