Energy Efficiency in Private Rented Homes

ACE has been working closely with Friends of the Earth to bring together a 37-strong coalition of wide-ranging organisations all calling for one thing – the introduction of minimum energy efficiency standards in the private rented sector.

For too long the private rented sector has been overlooked, and as such it contains some of the coldest houses in the UK. We think this needs to change, and so we are demanding a new law to protect private tenants. The coalition (which includes children’s, housing, elderly, disability and environmental charities) is calling for urgent Government action to make it illegal to rent out the least insulated properties until they are brought up to a higher standard of energy efficiency.

We need our supporters to help us win this campaign. If you would like to help this campaign then please write to your MP and ask him/her to sign EDM 653 calling for minimum energy efficiency standards in the private rented sector. The letters need not be long or complicated, but please be sure to include a return address, and forward on any replies to us. We don’t like to provide template letters to our supporters, as this makes less impact on the MPs, but you might also wish to add something to your letter from the suggestions below.

If you’re not sure who your MP is you can find out here , and you would like to know more about the campaign then you can view the campaign statement here.

This vital campaign will bring improvements to health, create jobs, save money on fuel bills and help the UK to meet its carbon reduction targets – please help us to win it by writing to your MP today.

Extra Information:

Over three million households in England live in private rented homes – the very hardest homes to heat are twice as common in this sector as in the rest of the housing stock.
People living in private rented houses are four times more likely to be living in a cold home as those in social housing (provided by the local authority or a housing association). Carbon emissions from homes make up almost a third of the UK’s total.

Urgently improving the worst private rented homes is a vital step to cutting the UK’s carbon emissions from housing by at least 42 per cent by 2020.
Research from Consumer Focus showed that kitting out the homes of those living in fuel poverty with heating and insulation to a high standard would create 35,000 jobs.
The number of households in fuel poverty has grown from 1.2 million in 2004 to 4.6 million 2009 and is expected to grow further in 2010, according to the Fuel Poverty Advisory Group.
The annual cost to the NHS of treating winter related disease made worse by living in cold homes, such as pneumonia, is £859 million, according to the 2009 Chief Medical Officer’s report.