Warm homes for Wales

17 April 2013

Over one in four people in Wales live in fuel poverty, meaning they have to spend more than 10 per cent of the household income to keep warm. And housing is responsible for about one fifth of greenhouse gas emissions in Wales.

The Housing Bill coming from the Welsh Government is a great opportunity to improve the quality of housing in Wales. 

The government's Arbed scheme has already improved 7,500 homes with measures such as installing efficient boilers, wall insulation and solar photovoltaic panels - but seriously tackling the problem means upgrading 400,000 homes over the next 10 years.

The new law must set minimum standards of energy efficiency for private rental houses. Privately rented homes are twice as likely to have very poor energy efficiency than other housing, which means the poorest people are more likely to live in the poorest housing.

The Housing Bill must:

• Make it illegal for landlords to let an energy inefficient property
• Give tenants security against being thrown out of their homes if they ask landlords to improve the energy efficiency
• Authorise local councils to improve houses, and charge landlords if they don't do it themselves
• Require all landlords and letting/management agents in Wales to be registered and licenced, ensuring basic standards are met before houses can be rented

Friends of the Earth Cymru submitted a Housing Bill consultation response in August 2012, and the Welsh Government is currently considering proposals before introducing a Housing Bill in October 2013.