Landlords who rent out sub-standard draughty homes face a crackdown under plans set out by the energy secretary, Ed Miliband, at the Labour party conference on Monday.
Miliband said the measures would lift a million renters out of fuel poverty.
Previous plans, outlined in the Labour manifesto, applied only to private landlords, but the new stipulations will now cover tenants in social homes too.
Miliband said: “We all know that the poorest people in our country often live in cold, draughty homes. It is a Tory legacy … this government will not tolerate this injustice and we will end it.”
He told the Labour party conference, in Liverpool: “We will go further and faster than promised in our manifesto: ensuring every rented home reaches decent standards of energy efficiency.”
Under current regulations, private landlords are free to rent out homes even if they only meet the lowest minimum standard of efficiency, Energy Performance Certificate E, which experts said was a recipe for cold and draughty homes that could endanger health.
Social rented homes have no minimum energy efficiency standards at present, and concerns have been raised by campaigners that social landlords, including housing associations and councils, have been allowing their stock to deteriorate, harming some of the most vulnerable in society.
Labour will now consult by the end of this year on revised proposals that would require all rented homes to meet energy performance certificate C, or its equivalent, by 2030.
Home insulation efforts stalled under the previous government. Analysis by Friends of the Earth has found that at current rates of progress, it would take 90 years to ensure that the 55% of homes in England and Wales that do not meet EPC C are brought up to that standard.
Health authorities are concerned about the poor state of the UK’s homes, after cases of damp and mould that have caused illness and even death in children. Homes are also responsible for about a fifth of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions, and cost households hundreds of pounds a year in higher energy bills, so are an urgent priority for reaching net zero.
Campaigners welcomed the proposals but called for them to be enacted sooner.
Simon Evans, coordinator of the End Fuel Poverty Coalition, said: “People in rented accommodation are almost twice as likely to live in cold, damp homes compared with people who own their own properties … but the government shouldn’t drag their heels with more consultations. This issue has been consulted on widely in the past and ministers must move to take action.”
He also pointed to the government’s plans to cut the winter fuel allowance from pensioners who are not eligible for pension credit benefits. “We also need to see the government revoke cuts to the winter fuel payment for this year and commit to more support for vulnerable households so that everybody can stay warm this winter and next,” he said.
Caroline Simpson, campaign manager for the group Warm This Winter, said: “UK properties are some of the worst insulated in Europe, with millions of Brits currently condemned to living in cold, damp, mouldy homes they can’t afford to heat. With energy bills still 65% more than they were at the start of the energy crisis, home insulation is the quickest way to bring down bills, but is seldom prioritised by landlords.”
