Press release

Insulating rented homes could save tenants 488 pounds a year - new report

2 March 2011

Tenants living in the UK's coldest, health-hazard homes could save £488 a year on fuel bills if they were improved to a basic standard of heating and insulation, a new report commissioned by Friends of the Earth and WWF reveals today (Wednesday 2 March).

The report comes on the same day as the House of Lords debates flagship new laws to help insulate the nation's homes. Friends of the Earth is warning the Government that its Green Deal will do little to help millions of vulnerable people and is calling for new legislation to make sure the worst insulated and poorly heated rented homes are improved.

According to Government figures properties rented from a landlord or letting agency are the most likely to be the worst insulated. 42 per cent of tenants in the coldest rented homes unable to afford to heat them properly and are defined as being in fuel poverty.

The new research, by the Energy Saving Trust, shows the average cost of improving the coldest rented homes is £2,535 and 37 per cent could be improved for less than £900 through cheap measures like loft and cavity wall insulation and draught proofing . Only five per cent would cost more than £7,500 to bring up to a basic standard of energy efficiency.

The report also found that improving the coldest rented homes to a minimum standard would save 1.87 million tonnes of climate-changing carbon dioxide each year - the equivalent of taking almost 800,000 cars off the road.

Friends of the Earth's Warm Homes Campaigner Dave Timms said:

"Tenants living in the coldest homes could save almost £500 a year on energy bills if their landlords brought their houses up to a basic level of heating and insulation.

"This is great news but we need a new law to make it happen rather than the review the Government is proposing - no-one should have to put up with renting a cold, damp home that makes them ill and costs a fortune to heat.

"The coalition's Green Deal to refurbish British homes will leave many out in the cold unless it is part of a comprehensive plan to insulate all our homes, including a minimum energy efficiency standard for rented homes."

A recent poll for Friends of the Earth found that tenants renting from a landlord or through a letting agency fared the worst during the freezing snowy weather earlier in the winter, with half saying they felt uncomfortably cold at home. And a third turned off the heating because they were concerned about the cost, despite being cold.

ENDS

Notes to editors

1. A copy of the Which Way Up report is available here: http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/briefings/which_way_up_advance.pdf

2. The new research by the Energy Saving Trust includes modelling of the impact of improving homes with the lowest levels of energy efficiency rating (measured from 'A' at the top to 'G' at the bottom) and comparing the worst homes in the private rented sector with the worst homes in the housing stock as a whole. It looked at the cost of the improvements to bring properties out of the lowest energy efficiency rating bands E, F and G up to a higher level of performance. The study reports on the average and overall energy bill and carbon savings of three different scenarios.

No. of 'F' and 'G' rated private rented homes in Britain : 754,000
Total cost of improvements (to 'E' rated): £1.91 billion
Average cost per improved home: £2,535
Total annual CO2 saved: 1.87 MtCO2
Average annual CO2 saving per improved home: 2.48 tCO2
Total annual fuel bill reduction: £368 million
Average annual fuel bill reduction per improved home: £488

There are 3.1 million private rented properties in England of which 19 per cent have the worst levels (F or G rated) levels of energy efficiency (this is scaled up for the report to 754,000 properties for Great Britain).

3. According to the Chief Medical Officer Sir Liam Donaldson's annual report for 2009, (published 15 March 2010): "People living in poorly heated housing live in greater danger. Old, badly insulated properties offer significantly less protection against the risks of the cold than more modern, warmer dwellings. Heating matters. Not having central heating is strongly correlated to a greater risk of death."

4. The annual cost to the NHS of treating winter-related disease due to cold private housing is £859 million.

5. The private rented sector has a greater proportion of the most energy inefficient homes - those with an energy efficiency rating of 'G'. They are twice as common in the private rented sector as in other sectors. 20% of private rented sector households live in fuel poverty. This rises to 42% in the households living in the worst insulated (F and G rated) properties.

6. According to Consumer Focus bringing all F and G rated private rented properties up to an energy efficiency rating of E would lift 150,000 households out of fuel poverty.

7. The Energy Bill is being debated at Report Stage in the House of Lords on Wednesday 2 March and Tuesday 8 March. Thirty organisations - including Friends of the Earth, WWF, Age UK, Consumer Focus, Citizens Advice, Crisis and several local authorities - are calling for legislation to be included in the Energy Bill to set a legal minimum standard of energy efficiency from 2016, with landlords who re-let the very worst properties (those with an energy efficiency rating of F or G) from that date committing an offence. One hundred and fifty nine MPs have signed an Early Day Motion supporting a minimum energy efficiency standard for private rented homes.

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Published by Friends of the Earth Trust