Private renters need greater protection from eviction and rent rises, which would allow them to take up green grants and escape from fuel poverty, says Generation Rent.
Five times as many homeowners have been granted energy efficiency awards compared to private renters, despite renters being at much higher risk of fuel poverty, data from the lobby group shows.
Since 2010, fuel poverty has fallen by 35% among homeowners and by 54% among council tenants, but by just 4% for private renters, says the private tenant’s body.
It points out that if private renters had received grants in relation to the scale of the problem they face, the number of fuel-poor households in the sector would have fallen by 43%.
It says 24.1% of private renters live in fuel poverty, a higher rate than any other tenure.
Back in 2020, the government proposed that new rental tenancies must have a minimum energy efficiency rating of C by April 2025, which will require landlords to spend thousands on such features as heat pumps, insulation or solar panels. All tenancies must meet this standard by 2028.
Government analysis suggests that for the majority of private rented homes, energy efficiency improvements will cost between £5,000 and £10,000.
The main source of funding to retrofit homes is the Energy Company Obligation where households on low incomes, usually in receipt of benefits, can access grants to install insulation and other measures.
But the renter’s body says that since the scheme’s introduction, in 2013, homeowners have enjoyed “the lion’s share of the grants”, 1.65m, or 69.9%, despite accounting for 40.9% of fuel-poor households.
By comparison private renters, who account for 36.6% of fuel-poor households, received just 330,000 Energy Company Obligation grants, or 14% of the total.
The body says: “A major obstacle to the take-up of grants in the private rented sector is poor security of tenure, which allows landlords whose properties are upgraded to raise the rent, cancelling out any energy bill savings, or evict the tenant in order to sell the improved property.”
It adds that while the Renters Reform Bill, currently making its way through parliament, aims to improve protection for tenants from arbitrary evictions, “it will still allow these practices so tenants will still have little incentive to apply for a grant”.
The lobby group calls on the government to amend the Renters Reform Bill to protect tenants who receive an energy efficiency grant from:
- Eviction on grounds for sale and moving back in for at least six years, which the body estimates to be the time it would take for the average grant to translate into energy bill savings
- Any increase in rent as a result of grant-funded improvements
It adds that landlords should also be required to raise the energy efficiency rating of their properties to an energy efficiency rating of C, “to oblige them to accept grant-funded works to their property”.
Generation Rent deputy chief executive Dan Wilson Craw says: “This [energy efficiency grant] money is supposed to tackle fuel poverty, but is bypassing the people who need it the most.
“There is understandable squeamishness about handing money to landlords who stand to make a profit, but the longer the grants system fails to work as it should, the longer tenants suffer and the further we are from meeting climate targets.
“With measures to make sure the financial benefit of grants goes to the tenant, by preventing evictions and rent increases arising from the home’s improvement, we can slash carbon emissions and jump-start improvements to renter’s living standards.”
