The Government’s ‘green deal’ will not do enough to tackle poorly insulated private rented homes, Green Party leader Caroline Lucas has claimed.
She is calling for it to be illegal to rent out properties with an energy efficiency rating of less than E and for a mandatory register of private landlords who comply with the law.
Speaking at the Chartered Institute of Housing’s south-east conference, she said there should be a ‘street-by-street’ programme of energy efficiency, to ensure affordable improvements were made to every home in the country.
She said it is a “social and environmental scandal” that people are living in cold, damp, unhealthy homes.
However, consumer bodies have discovered that tenants do not care about the energy efficiency of their properties.
According to a new report by Consumer Focus, just 18% of people said that seeing an EPC had influenced their decision to buy or rent a particular property, and fewer than half had seen an EPC before signing an agreement. |