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Energy efficiency: UK renters could save up to £570 a year

Research has found that raising the minimum energy efficiency standard to a C rating for privately rented homes would save billpayers about £570 a year.

This would amount to annual savings totalling £1.75bn across the UK, according to the thinktank E3G in a report called Cutting Energy Bills and Raising Standards for Private Renters.

The government has been accused of dragging its feet on proposals requiring landlords to improve properties to at least a C rating under the energy performance certificate (EPC) scheme.

Two-thirds of rented properties are below that proposed minimum, leaving millions living in places that do not meet the legal definition of a “decent” home. One in four people renting live in fuel poverty.

Dan Wilson Craw, the deputy director of the campaign group Generation Rent, said: “By improving insulation and heating in private rented homes, landlords allow their tenants to heat their homes at less cost, which not only improves comfort levels, but reduces damp and mould, and the health problems they cause. The government has to go further, not just for renters but for the planet’s sake and the country’s energy security.”

Landlords can now let out homes that merit only an E rating, making them draughty and expensive to heat. But as tenants usually pay the heating bills, and with a shortage of available rental properties, landlords have little incentive to improve their lets with insulation, draught-proofing, double glazing and more efficient heating systems.

Ministers began a consultation on raising the minimum requirement for privately rented homes in 2020, with a view to forcing landlords to meet the EPC C standard from 2025 for new tenancies and from 2028 for existing tenancies.

But these proposals have not yet been turned into legislation.

Colm Britchfield, a policy adviser at E3G, said: “The poor state of many rented homes is a growing national scandal. Tenants face sky-high bills, partly 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.”

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