Cold rented homes cost NHS £145m a year28 April 2011
New research shows the NHS spends £145 million a year treating people who are ill due to their cold rented homes.
The research was carried out by public health experts the Chartered Institute for Environmental Health on behalf of Friends of the Earth.
Friends of the Earth's Warm Homes Campaigner Dave Timms said:
It's shocking that people still have to put up with cold rented homes that make them sick and cost a fortune to heat - while the NHS spends millions every year that decent insulation could help avoid.
Offence to let coldest properties
Friends of the Earth is calling on the Government to make it an offence for landlords, from 2016, to re-let the coldest properties until they meet a basic standard of energy efficiency.
The Government's new Energy Bill is a great opportunity to bring in this law.
Rented homes are the most likely to be the worst insulated. In the coldest rented properties, 42 per cent of tenants live in fuel poverty - meaning they can't afford to heat their homes properly.
Friends of the Earth has joined forces with more than 35 organisations including Crisis, Citizens Advice and Age UK to call for the law.
Insulating homes would not only fight ill-health, it would also:
- save tenants hundreds of pounds on their fuel bills every year
- create thousands of jobs in the UK
- cut carbon emissions - more than a quarter of the UK's carbon emissions come from our homes, so insulating them is one of the cheapest and quickest ways to prevent dangerous climate change.
Take action
Ask your MP to support a strong Energy Bill.
© National Energy Action
