Low-income tenants will face higher energy bills as a result of the government’s decision to scrap plans to force private landlords to upgrade their properties to make them more energy efficient, experts have said.
The requirement for landlords to meet stricter energy efficiency standards, put out for consultation by the government two years ago, was dropped by the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, on Wednesday when he announced the scrapping or delay of a range of green measures he said imposed a direct cost on consumers.
Analysts and campaigners said the plans would not help most low income families, especially private renters struggling with the cost of living crisis. One estimate had put the cost in higher energy bills to private renters of just a two-year delay in energy efficiency targets at £1bn.
Other plans announced by Sunak include a five-year delay in a ban on new petrol or diesel cars originally slated for 2030, a slowdown in the phasing out of gas boilers scheduled for 2035, and a nine-year delay in a ban on off-grid oil boilers from 2026 to 2035.
Scrapping higher energy efficiency standards in private rented homes was expected to have the most impact on low income households. According to the 2021 census there were 5m households renting privately in England and Wales alone, with this form of tenure expanding massively over the past two decades, up from 1.9m in 2001.
Minimum energy efficiency regulations in the private rented sector have been in place since 2018 but in 2021 the government proposed stricter standards in new tenancies from 2025 and in all tenancies from 2028, with landlords who fail to upgrade their properties facing fines. These have now been scrapped.
About 2.4m private rented properties do not meet those scrapped stricter standards. Nearly a quarter of private rented homes are classified as “non decent” homes, with 11% reported as having problems with damp. Around a quarter of private renters live in fuel poverty.
Clare Moriarty, the chief executive of Citizens Advice, said net zero policies were a key part of the solution to the cost of living crisis. “The government’s decision to row back on these policies will particularly hurt renters, leaving millions of tenants across the country facing needlessly high bills through the winters ahead.”
Rachelle Earwaker, senior economist at Joseph Rowntree Foundation, said: “Relaxing the regulations on energy efficient homes is ill-advised and ill-considered. Tenants, who have seen their energy prices skyrocket in the past year, and are watching the renters reform bill be further delayed, may think the prime minister is more concerned about their landlord’s pocket above all.”
Simon Francis, coordinator of the End Fuel Poverty Coalition, said changes to the energy efficiency of private rented homes would lead to higher bills for tenants: “People living in cold damp homes will be aghast that Rishi Sunak is playing politics with measures which will help keep them warm every winter.”
Peter Chalkley, the director of the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) thinktank said: “The one measure that would have brought down bills is the landlord energy efficiency rules. Rented accommodation is some of the worst quality and so most costly to heat with tenants having no power to insulate themselves. These measures will add to the cost of living for those struggling, not make things easier.”
Ben Beadle, the chief executive of the National Residential Landlords Association, said: “It is welcome that landlords will not be required to invest substantial sums of money during a cost of living crisis when many are themselves struggling financially. However, ministers need to use the space they are creating to develop a full plan that supports the rental market to make the energy efficiency improvements we all want to see.”
Lyndsay Walsh, Oxfam’s climate change policy adviser, said: “It is a false trade-off to suggest that ambitious action to tackle climate change must be at the expense of ordinary people’s pockets.”
