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Net Zero: Landlords see wishes granted as Sunak could delay rules for homes [1]
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Date: 2023-09
Landlords told the government that proposed energy efficiency standards for rented homes were “too ambitious” and would drive them out of the rental market ahead of Rishi Sunak’s rumoured backtrack on the plans.
Their comments were made in consultation responses on the introduction of the Minimum Energy Efficiency Standard (MEES), first proposed in 2020, which would require landlords to upgrade residential properties to a grade “C” energy efficiency standard by 2025 or 2028 depending on the type of tenancy.
Sunak is now expected to announce the scrapping of any requirement for landlords to improve the energy efficiency of their properties as part of a bonfire of net zero targets.
It could mean property lobbyists have succeeded in pushing the government to water down the plans, which were unpopular with their members. The extent of landlords’ influence over the government has been controversial in the past: openDemocracy revealed in 2021 that a quarter of Tory MPs were landlords.
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A consultation on MEES, titled ‘Improving the energy performance of privately rented homes’, saw the government ask for feedback from stakeholders on the proposals, which closed in January 2021. Responses were collected, but no government response was ever published and requests from openDemocracy for the full set of consultation responses were rejected.
But some groups boasted publicly about the feedback they had submitted. In January 2021, Propertymark, a membership body for property agents, said the MEES was “too ambitious and will not be achieved”, calling for “long-term goals” and more “incentives” like “better funding options” for landlords to do the work.
The National Residential Landlord Association (NRLA) said that while it supported “the move to a carbon target in the long term,” the government’s plans had “the potential to lead to the removal of many PRS [private rented sector] properties from the market”.
“Coupled with other government policies,” it wrote, “this will make a significant amount of properties uneconomical as a business prospect.”
Claims that landlords could leave the sector in droves following increased regulation may be exaggerated, housing minister Rachel Maclean admitted in March.
Private renters are some of the most vulnerable to the energy crisis, which has seen household bills rise by around 25% compared to the previous year. According to the government, over a quarter of private renters live in fuel poverty, which will be partly a consequence of the energy efficiency of their property.
Today, annual rent inflation rose, setting a record high for the 17th month in a row according to the Office for National Statistics.
Renters’ rights groups say renters face poverty this winter if adequate changes aren’t made.
“Private renters are more likely to be in fuel poverty than homeowners or social tenants, so for the government to consider abandoning measures to cut their energy bills is irresponsible and wrong,” said Ben Twomey, chief executive of Generation Rent. “Upgrading the country’s private rented homes is a large task, but the prime minister cannot fix it by running away from the problem.
“Renters are at the sharp end of the cost of living crisis, and heating their homes will force more into poverty this winter if landlords aren’t given clear targets to meet.”
The government could also be rolling back other net zero pledges, according to the BBC, such as pushing back the deadline to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars, weakening a plan to phase out the installation of gas boilers by 2035, and delaying a ban on off-grid oil boilers from 2026 to 2035, where they will only need to be phased out by 80%
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[1] Url:
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/minimum-energy-efficiency-standard-rishi-sunak-propertymark-nrla-net-zero-landlords/
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