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Landlords treated less well than owner-occupiers in new green initiative

A local council is one of the first to be offering new Go Green Grants to landlords to improve energy efficiency through the installation of low-carbon heating improvements - but they are being treated less favourably than owner occupiers on the same scheme. 

The Redbridge Go Green Grants programme is using £1.7m of funding from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS). 

Homeowners and landlords are eligible to apply for the scheme. In the case of a rented property, the household income criteria is related to the income of the tenants living in the property, and not the landlord’s income.

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To be eligible, households must have a household income of £30,000 or less, and live in a property with an EPC rating of D, E, F, or G.

Applicants must provide the following income evidence: 

- Where an applicant is in receipt of Universal Credit, a full universal credit statement is required;

- For all other benefits and income, three months bank statements for all bank accounts and three months payslips must be provided;

- Where a self-assessment tax form is provided, we will also need the previous year's certified copy of the tax return.

As part of the application process, the property will undergo an assessment that will recommend the appropriate measures. This could include, for example solar panels, loft insulation, solid wall, floor, or cavity wall insulation. 

The exception is fossil fuel heating systems such as gas boilers (whether installed as new or as repairs to existing systems) which are not eligible. 

The council then reveals its pro-owner occupier approach - s dictated by the government - when it says: “If you are an owner occupier, you do not need to contribute any funding. If you are a landlord, you will need to contribute a minimum of one third of the costs.”

Government guidance states that funding to owner occupied eligible households should cover the full cost of upgrading a home and they do not expect the average cost of upgrades to exceed £10,000 per property.

Where a property is rented, the Government guidance states that they do not expect the grant funding to exceed £5,000 on average per household and that the landlord will need to contribute one third or more if the costs for the works are above £5,000.

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    How are landlords supposed to know how much their tenants earn?
    We might know how much they earned before they moved in if we referenced them but that's likely to be distant history.

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