Research reveals that privately-rented homes are officially the least energy-efficient of the national housing stock – pumping out 11 megatonnes of carbon dioxide every year.
Ajay, founder of online claims management firm, Veriwise, believes evidence from the company’s clients suggests that some landlords’ unwillingness to make basic repairs to their properties means they are highly unlikely to invest in the necessary energy efficiency measures to improve the situation.
National targets aim to ensure every home in Britain has a minimum energy efficiency rating of band C by the end of 2030.
But the government’s own figures show that if the number of privately rented properties currently believed to have the lowest possible energy efficiency ratings were put together it would create a city the size of Sunderland, Norwich or Peterborough.
3.2 million privately rented properties in England and Wales currently have an EPC rating of D or below, with 18% of privately rented households living in fuel poverty – compared to 8% of owner-occupied homes.
Ajay explains: “Every day we’re contacted by renters who can’t afford to turn the heating on, whose heating doesn’t work in the first place, or who can’t keep their homes warm because all the heat goes straight out of a broken window.
“But we’re expecting the landlords who won’t fix broken windows and who are happy for their tenants to sit day in day out in damp and drafty homes to turn around and invest in heat pumps and hydrogen boilers – it’s not so much unrealistic as fantastical”
“Every day at Veriwise we hear cases of neglect and disrepair you would not believe – in every corner of the country there are renters asking questions like ‘how long can my landlord leave me without heating?’ or ‘does my landlord have to fix a broken front door?’”
He concludes: “Renting regulations even make it unlawful to let a property with an EPC rating below E – but national figures show that there are 89,000 such rented properties. Who is enforcing those regulations? Verwise was created to make sure every renter gets justice and a warm home – regardless of their ability to pay.”
