Labour veteran leads attack on landlords over EPC investment

Caroline Flint – a former Labour government minister under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown – has attacked some landlords for alleged under-investment in energy efficiency.

Flint is now ‘Chair of the Committee on Fuel Poverty’ and over the weekend made the attack while backing the current Labour government’s new proposals to clamp down on private rental property EPC ratings.

The government is consulting on making it law for private rental EPCs to be C or higher from 2030.

The government wants a maximum £15,000 cap beyond which landlords will not have to spend to meet the EPC C rating, with potential for a lower £10,000 cap if renters are charged lower rents or homes are in a lower council tax band.

It is estimated that the average cost to landlords of complying with the proposals will be £6,100 to £6,800 by 2030.

But Caroline Flint has waded into the controversy, saying: “Private rented sector tenants have far greater risk of being in fuel poverty particularly in low-cost older homes.

“The lack of investment by some landlords to end the scandal of cold homes has gone on for too long.

“In the last five years the efforts to reduce fuel poverty flatlined. I welcome the focus on improving standards in the private rented sector and the opportunity to reset and re-energise England’s Fuel Poverty Strategy.”

And Ben Twomey – chief executive at Generation Rent – also backed the government, claiming: “One in four private renters live in fuel poverty, the highest rate of any tenure.

Read the full article at Landlord Today