The Generation Rent group of activists wants the state to step in to stop what it calls “taxpayer-funded insulation grants” from “enriching private landlords.”
It even wants the government to limit rent increases following energy efficiency upgrades which the landlord may have contributed to making.
The Renters Rights Bill – which yesterday started its Report Stage in the House of Lords – is considering an amendment by Green Party activist Baroness Jenny Jones which seeks to make sure landlords can’t increase rent after receiving public money to improve the energy efficiency of a property.
A statement from Generation Rent says: “The amendment would mean more landlords could afford to meet planned Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards, but their tenants would also benefit from lower bills, rather than face a rent rise that could cancel out the savings. Assurance on rent would encourage more low-income tenants to take up the grants.”
The activist group claims – using results of a poll it commissioned itself – that “nearly four million private renters in England and Wales are regularly struggling to pay their energy bills.”
This figure is actually nearly twice the government’s figure of private renters living in fuel poverty.
The poll also claims that over 3.6m renters “are living with damp or mould and a quarter are living in a cold home due to poor insulation. Meanwhile, nearly a third (29%) of renters have reported a maintenance issue to their landlord that hasn’t been fixed and one in twenty have experienced racism or discrimination from a landlord or letting agent.”
As part of its Warm Homes Plan, the Department for Energy, Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) is mandating all private rented homes in England and Wales meet Energy Efficiency Rating C by 2030. This means over 55% of private rental homes in England will need energy efficiency improvements in the next five years. In some local areas, the number is much higher, at over 75% of privately rented homes.
The most recent Private Landlords Survey found 47% of landlords had at least one property with an Energy Performance Certificate rating of D or below.
The Government provides grants for landlords to make energy efficiency improvements when they rent to tenants on low incomes. Under the new Warm Homes Local Grant scheme, landlords are required to sign a declaration that they “understand rent should not be increased as a result of upgrades” funded by grant.
However, Generation Rent still accuses the landlord community of seeking to defy this, saying in a statement “there is no way to make sure landlords abide by this.”
A spokesperson for Generation Rent says: “Everyone needs a good quality, affordable home. It’s the foundation of our lives. But millions of renters are living in cold homes with shocking levels of mould and damp, while we regularly struggle to pay our energy bills. These issues ripple across our lives, impacting our mental and physical health and forcing us to make really difficult decisions like having to go without food or go into debt to pay our bills.
“The government’s ambition to lift renters out of fuel poverty is welcome. But landlord groups are already warning they will increase rents as a result.
“The danger is that public money could be used to enrich landlords rather than benefit tenants. We are already seeing cases where landlords have evicted tenants who rely on benefits after publicly funded energy efficiency upgrades, so they could get a better price for their property. Without protections, landlords could easily raise the rent to effectively cancel out their tenants’ energy bill savings.”
And Green Party Baroness Jones adds: “I’m worried that a good policy on energy efficiency will end up annoying the very people it is aiming to help. The government are doing the right thing for the climate with higher energy efficiency standards. They are doing the right thing for landlords with grants to help them meet those standards.
“The only people who don’t get a guaranteed better life are the poor tenants who have to put up with the dust, noise and inconvenience of the energy improvements being done, but without knowing if their rent will be going up as their energy bills go down.”
This article is taken from Landlord Today