The government is being encouraged to act to help renters
(Picture: PA Wire)The Government has been encouraged to raise all privately rented homes to an energy efficiency rating of C, a think tank has said after finding it could save billpayers £570 a year.
The climate-focused E3G has said in its report, Cutting Energy Bills and Raising Standards for Private Renters, that if energy efficiency were improved, annual savings totalling £1.75billion could be made across the UK. At present, landlords can let out homes with an E rating.
Around 46 per cent of homes now meet the C benchmark but only around one third are up to scratch in the private rental sector, while around a quarter live in fuel poverty.
Colm Britchfield, of E3G, said: “The poor state of many rented homes is a growing national scandal.
“Tenants are facing sky-high bills, in part because so much energy is wasted in inefficient homes. The Government has an oven-ready set of regulations to fix this. Now they need to put them into law.”
The Government began a consultation on raising the minimum requirement in 2020 with a view to enforcing it from 2025 for new tenancies and 2028 for existing ones. However, the proposals have not become legislation.
The think tank has also pressed the Government to act with around 14 per cent of the UK’s carbon emissions associated with residential heating.
A statement from the Department for Business and Energy said: “Thanks to Government support, the number of homes with an energy efficiency rating of C or above has gone from 13 per cent in 2010 to 46 per cent and rising.
“We are investing over £6.6 billion to help decarbonise homes and buildings, and to ensure all homes meet EPC band C by 2035.
“The Energy Company Obligation runs from 2022 to 2026 and will help hundreds of thousands of families with energy-saving measures such as insulation, with average energy bill savings of around £300 a year. Installations are now increasing, and we have announced a further £1bn extension of the scheme to start in spring 2023.”
