Government at risk of missing fuel poverty milestone

The chair of the Committee on Fuel Poverty Caroline Flint has urged the government to come down harder on private landlords whose properties don’t meet legal Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards (MEES).

In a letter to energy secretary Claire Coutinho, Flint warns that “time is running out” to meet the government’s 2025 fuel poverty milestone unless 704,000 poorly-insulated, private rented properties are prioritised for “urgent upgrading”.

It is one of a series of recommendations outlined by Flint which she would like to see included within the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement to assist households struggling to pay their heat and power bills.

In her letter, sent jointly with fellow members of the government’s fuel poverty advisory body, the ex-Labour minister warns Coutinho that households’ typical heating bills are £557 a year higher than prior to last year’s energy crisis.

She stresses that fuel poverty issues are disproportionately concentrated in the private rented sector. She adds that barely a fifth (20.3%) of all Brits lived in privately rented accommodation, however 36.6% of those in fuel poverty live in such accommodation, which is meant to meet the EPC E standard.

Prime minister Rishi Sunak announced in September that the government would not press ahead with plans to force private landlords to raise the standard of their properties to Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) band C when they are let out.

The committee writes that a combination of “lack of enforcement of the MEES and current regulations, which exempt a private rented property from achieving the benchmark if the cost of doing so exceeds £3,500 is impeding progress to meet the government’s fuel poverty reduction milestones”.

Flint adds that the Autumn Statement is an “opportunity to direct improved enforcement of the MEES, delivery of energy efficiency programmes and landlord engagement to make private rented homes warmer”.

The government’s Renters (Reform) Bill, which was announced in the King’s Speech earlier this month, provides another opportunity to give private tenants the same rights to a decent home with adequate thermal comfort as those in social housing lets.

The letter also calls on the government to provide additional targeted payments for fuel poor and vulnerable households, which it describes as “a vital lifeline to those most at risk”.

And the letter states that in order to be confident of meeting its 2030 legal fuel poverty target, the government will have to upgrade at least 365,000 D-rated properties per year to an EPC C rating.