The Resolution Foundation has urged the government not to relax its target deadlines for improved energy efficiency in the private rental sector.
It is thought that the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero is set to scrap its previously proposed deadline of 2025 for newly-let rentals to achieve an energy performance rating of at least C, and a deadline of 2028 for all other rented properties.
The daily Telegraph claims the government is set to announce that all rental properties will have to reach the minimum standard by 2028.
But the Resolution Foundation, in a new report looking at wall quality, says: “Families across Britain will continue to face cold winters and higher energy bills until the nation’s housing stock is properly insulated. While the number of homes with walls rated ‘average’ or above efficiency has increased since 2012, renters continue to be left out as more than half have inadequately insulated walls.
“Poor quality walls are also more common in less affluent parts of the country, imparting higher energy costs on those less likely to cope with them.
“England’s homes have as large a carbon footprint as out petrol and diesel powered cars, and finding a way of decarbonising millions of dwelling without burdening poorer households with high costs remains an urgent policy task for the decade ahead.
“To spur homeowners and landlords into action, the government should require all homes - including those owned as rental properties - to be energy efficiency by 2025.
“This should be combined with new means-tested support for around half of households to help with at least some of the costs of the upgrades.”
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😂😂 keep it coming morons…. I am out anyway, this would destroy the PRS 🆘🆘
A think tank that doesn't think things out properly
They're just puppets following the agenda
*Muppets* not puppets
Nothing to do with insulation , more to do with inflation and the ridiculous prices they charge for electric in particular
Get everyone on leccy then make it so expensive nobody can afford it
All the Think seems to be doing us things to push PLL out of the market. Rather than approach us and discuss - NOT FORCE THINGS! We are human and reasonable- aren’t we- after all! The grants u van get- only if ur tenants aren’t workin . So I’m told. To coat ur house to prevent damp and help against rain penetration aiding keeping heat inside - wow costs thousands. No wonder LL are vamouching out of the market.
Who is on this bloody think tank? Because it appears to be more tank than thinking...
EPC’s getting ridiculous now I see a former 1930’s Joseph Rowntree Housing Estate, mostly 2 storey Terraced houses, which were built with Cavity Walls and had the cavity pumped with poly beads insulation some years ago.
The ones owned by local Authority are currently having additional 280mm think external insulation added it looks ridiculous plus Roofs over hang being altered to accommodate the extra thickness plus other changes too much to go into.
Good old tax payers most occupants live for free.
So the poor tenant saves £200 a year on energy and pays £2000 a year more in rent, how does that help the poor ?
I have insulated my block of flats and now get complaints that it is too hot even at this time of year.
Firstly, a well insulated house is cool in the Summer and warm in the winter. Our's is EPC C now, and only gets hot in the summer if we open the windows and doors.
Secondly I think it's a good thing that EPC C is a target. I lived in bedsitter land for 25 years and I can tell you it was hell, with landlords charging gas and electricity 10X more than the standard rate through their meters they had rigged. Single glazed windows and Victorian drafty places that cost a fortune to keep from freezing, let alone warm!
However, it's clear reasonable efforts are required here, with a carrot and stick. The govenment should be helping LL's to bring their let's up to EPC C. The govenment cane us LL's enough with Section 24 and 170 other new legislation. It's so complex and involved now, I've given my portfolio over to a good estate agents to manage.
Getting to EPC C is not too difficult for more modern houses. Just Double glazing throughout, thick 450mm loft insulation, LED lighting, and a combi gas boiler and you are pretty much there. Thats something LL's should have been doing over the years as a tax deductible expense anyways.
I take pride in providing good quality housing, not charging as much as possible and cramming 6 people into a two up two down that's been converted to bring in £6k a month in rents. I think the reasonable among us will be glad up to a point of these changes, but we should all be in fear of what the govenment will screw us over on next.
There is a middle way, and it should be reasonable. Some houses cant be improved, that's the state if it. Proper reasoned solutions to the PRS problems for LL's and tennants should be implemented, with consultations with LL's being essential to get it right.
I'm happy to see some protections for tennants, but we also need swift and effective protections for LL's too! It's a partnership, a contract in law. We have or should have rights like everyone else. Why are PLL's treated differently than Ltd. Companies with the tax system? That's just so unfair, and is disgusting that the conservative govenment has implemented that. Its immoral and just plain wrong.
Finally, if the govenment doesn't hear us, and they carry on destroying the PRS, then it's only the tennants that will suffer, because there will be no housing available for them.
I was only able to better my financial position and life, because I could move to where the work was. All that will stop, if it hasn't already. We are heading back to the 1970's again it seems!
2025 is just not a feasible deadline. Even if we all ignore the financial implications of the policy, there are simply not enough tradespeople around to do this work within less than two years. Also, some of the work could be very disruptive and not feasible when a property is occupied.
Isn't going to happen by 2025, or 2028 come to that, as properties below C become vacant they will sit empty in a que waiting to be up graded to a C or will be sold off
My property had a low C rating. To help my tenants I then added extra loft insulation and reloaded wooden double glazed windows with better upvc ones with thicker glazing. Finally when they complained about the storage heaters, I replaced them with an air source heat pump which seems to work very well. However...my propert has now been downgraded to D !!
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