Building & Design | Materials
UK Government’s Green Deal won’t help the most vulnerable, warns green group
The UK Coalition Government’s Green Deal, aimed at making it affordable for homeowners to undertake energy efficiency improvements, will not help the most vulnerable, warns Friends of the Earth.
In a report out today in conjunction with WWF, Which Way Up, the green group calls for new legislation to ensure that the least energy efficient homes – particularly those that are privately rented – are better insulated and heated.
The Government’s own figures indicate that of the 3.1 million properties rented from landlords or letting agencies, 19% are the least energy efficient.
According to the report, tenants living in the country’s coldest and least insulated homes could save around £488 a year on fuel bills if properties were brought up to a basic standard.
Improving the 750,000 worst performing private rented properties in the UK could cost from as little as £900 for cheap measures such as loft and cavity wall insulation.
On average, £2535 would improve the worst performing home and only 5% would require over £7500 to bring up to standard.
The result could be a total annual saving of 1.87 Mt CO2 and £386 million on fuel bills. Significant savings might also be made on the £859 million that winter-related diseases cost the NHS.
“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 ,” says Friends of the Earth’s campaigner Dave Timms.
The Coalition’s Energy Bill is currently being debated in the House of Lords, but a number of organisations and MPs are calling for measures to be added that set a legal minimum energy efficiency standards for private rented homes from 2016 onwards.
Landlords who re-let the worst performing properties would be committing an offense after this date.
For further information:
www.foe.co.uk
www.wwf.org.uk/
Related stories:
UK Government’s Green Deal risks failure without business support, says CBI (15-Feb)
UK Government unveils Green Deal legislation (9-Dec 2010)
UK Government to roll out Green Deal to businesses and landlords (3-Nov 2010)
UK households living in fuel poverty rise to 4.5 million (15-Oct 2010)