Landlords demand financial support package to deliver green home upgrades

Landlords have called on the government to launch a dedicated energy efficiency support scheme for the private rental sector, warning the sector has received just a small fraction of public green home retrofit support to date, despite being the most fuel poor segment of the housing market.

Analysis carried out by the National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA) this morning reveals that 62 per cent of private rented homes have an energy efficiency rating of D or worse, and that more than a third of all fuel poor households in England are private renters.

But the trade association claims just just five per cent of rented households have received financial support under government schemes to improve the energy efficiency of their housing. That compares to 21 per cent of owner-occupiers, 12 per cent of council households and 11 per cent of those living in housing association properties to have received support.

The NRLA therefore urged the government to launch a new support scheme to help landlords deliver much needed green upgrades to their properties, arguing the high cost of retrofit works such as insulation and low carbon heating remains a major barrier to action in the sector.

"The Chancellor needs to develop a financial support package that works for landlords and tenants," said Ben Beadle, chief executive of the National Residential Landlords Association. "This should especially be targeted at the hardest to treat properties where the cost of work will be prohibitive for landlords. In this way, he will also be doing the most to help the fuel poor."

The government's most recent English Housing Survey results calculated the cost of upgrading rental properties to an enery rating of at least C at more than £7,500. Meanwhile, recent analysis by the Labour party of data from the Climate Change Committee has pinned the cost of insulating homes and installing low carbon heating systems - such as heat pumps or hydrogen-ready boilers - to make them net zero-compliant at more than £20,000 per household.

As such, the NRLA said the government should introduce a scrappage scheme to upgrade windows in private rented homes, noting that a higher proportion of properties in the sector have no double glazing than any other tenure. It has also recommended energy efficiency measures carried out by a landlord should be offset against tax as repair and maintenance, rather than as an improvement at sale against Capital Gains Tax.

"We all want to see energy efficient rental homes," Beadle said. "They cut bills for tenants, make homes more attractive to potential renters and help the country to achieve its net zero commitment."

The government is under mounting pressure to set out how it plans to bring the UK's draughty and carbon intensive housing stock in line with the nation's climate goals. Energy use in the UK's homes, not counting electricity, accounts for roughly 14 per cent of the nation's greenhouse gas emissions, according to the Climate Change Committee, with the majority of properties poorly insulated and powered by fossil fuels.

The long-awaited Heat and Buildings Strategy is expected to set out a raft of policies that will kickstart a major green retrofit programme, but the document initially anticipated before Parliament broke for summer last week has now been delayed to the autumn amid disagreements in Whitehall over the cost of proposals.

A spokesperson from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) said the government would publish the results of a consultation on improving the energy performance of privately rented homes "in due course" and pointed to its progress to date in boosting the energy efficiency of the UK's housing stock.

"The UK has a strong track record in improving the energy performance of its homes, with 40 per cent now rated Band C - up from just nine per cent in 2008," BEIS said in a statement. "We are working to upgrade as many private rented sector homes as possible to Energy Performance Certificate Band C by 2030, which will reduce energy bills and ensure warmer homes."

The landlords' appeal comes just a few days after new cross-party legislation was introduced in the Commons and Lords that aims to mandate a more ambitious timeline for improving the household energy efficiency of the UK's housing stock.

The Minimum Energy Performance of Buildings Bill, introduced to Parliament on 20 July, is designed to help the government achieve the commitments it set out in December's Energy White Paper and subsequent policy statements, including for all private sector homes to achieve EPC Band C by 2028, with commercial buildings following by 2030 and all homes by 2035.

The bill, tabled in the Commons by Conservative MP David Amess and in the Lords by Liberal Democrat peer Lord Foster, would also introduce a new rule for all mortgage lenders to have a Band C average across their portfolio by 2030. Officials from BEIS have "indicated privately that they are likely to support the Bill", according to the i newspaper.

Lord Foster said the bill was "essential for the achievement of the [UK's] net zero target" as he introduced it to the Lords last week. "I have been campaigning on this Bill for over two years: it puts in place government policy, so I call upon Ministers to support it and give time for it to receive a second reading in the House of Lords," he said.

The second reading of the private members' bill is scheduled to take place on 22 October.

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