PARLIAMENTARY EARLY DAY MOTION
MINIMUM ENERGY EFFICIENCY STANDARDS FOR PRIVATE RENTED HOMES (26 July 2010)

That this House is concerned that over half of private rented homes fail the Decent Homes standard and that a quarter of private tenants live in fuel poverty, that the proportion of private rented properties with the worst energy rating is twice that of the owner-occupied sector and that the private rented sector contains the highest proportion (65 per cent.) of hard to treat homes lacking cavity walls or mains gas; notes Government statements that additional measures beyond the Green Deal will be needed to deliver all the necessary improvements to hard to treat homes; also notes that the Committee on Climate Change and the Fuel Poverty Advisory Group has called for mandatory energy efficiency standards for private rented properties; understands concerns that the requirements of the Housing Health and Safety Rating System are difficult for landlords to understand and costly and complex for councils to enforce; therefore believes that improved information, advice and financial incentives for tenants and landlords are needed; and calls on the Government to take the earliest legislative opportunity to give councils access to Energy Performance Certificate data and information about the rented properties in their area so that properties presenting the greatest health hazard, those with an energy efficiency rating of F or G, are given the highest priority for improvement, and to set a 2016 deadline after which such properties may not be let without improvement to a higher rating.

Sponsored by:
Mr John Leech (Liberal Democrat)