Tenants: What to do now?
The government have recently updated their net zero and sustainability strategy with a clutch of target and policy changes. One policy cancellation will seriously impact tenants of private landlords.
The UK has some of the least energy-efficient building stock in Europe, lagging far behind in energy-efficiency building standards and installation of low-carbon heating options. Our homes count for up to 25% of the UK’s carbon footprint, higher than transportation. So the upcoming legislation requiring landlords to bring rental properties up to an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) grade of C by 2025 was critical not to meet our overall target of Net Zero by 2050 (for that, we’d need most of those properties to be an A or a B), but at a far more basic level, simply bring rental property in Britain up to a modestly decent standard in heating costs and comfort.
Let’s put this further into context.
In 2021-22 there were approximately 4.6 million households within the private rented sector, representing 19% of all households in England. This is slightly larger than the social rented sector (17%, or 4 million households), but smaller than the owner-occupied sector (64%, or 15.6 million households), with London having the highest proportion of private renters.
The average property EPC has two grades. The first, targeted by the legislation, is the cost of electricity and gas for each property. This doesn’t take into account any plug use, but does cover heating, lighting, fans, and the like. A second, grade, only found on the latest EPCs, is an Environmental score, meant to promote the use of electric and other low-carbon heating sources. This second score has never been addressed in legislation for existing properties, though it is enforced for new-build properties. Even without addressing the carbon score, improving the cost of energy for the occupant will have a knock-on effect leading to lower carbon footprint as well.
With cost of living at an all-time high, this stricter target seemed to provide some equity without being unrealistic for landlords. We know that with extreme pressures in the UK rental market, most renters won’t have the luxury of choosing a property with a higher EPC, so it is even more important that landlords are faced with a requirement to improve their properties so that tenants are less impacted by rising cost of electricity and gas.
In fact, getting a property to a C grade doesn’t always require vast amounts of investment; in many cases, especially for flats, properties can be improved to scrape through to a low C relatively cheaply. However, most landlords won’t seek the advice of an expert, and rely instead on the blunt advice of the EPC itself, which uses wildly out-of-date costs both for gas and electricity tariffs and also building improvements. The EPC’s algorithms tend to steer them towards the most expensive upgrades and when they get actual quotations, they may find them to be much higher than predicted. EPC advice might be, for example, to install external insulation. The advice is blunt—the EPC does not indicate what is the appropriate thickness of the insulation, and it won’t take into consideration such issues as conservation status, junctions with neighbouring properties, and so forth. When they take the EPC to a contactor for a quotation, the contractor will tend to default to a package of work that is more than what is strictly necessary to get the job done really well. Unsurprisingly, we’ve seen claims that landlords will have to spend sums on properties that seem inflated. And even less surprisingly, landlords have pushed back against this legislation leading to the government caving in in order to win votes from the landlords. This leaves renters without this vital protection. Private renters have access neither to the billions of pounds of grant funding being provided for social housing, nor do they have the ability hat private owners do, to invest in necessary changes.
Taking a hard look at this difficult situation, we’ve compiled a list of things that tenants can do in the meantime, until this short-sighted move is reversed again, as we believe it must be.
First up, if you are means-tested, living on low income, over 60 or otherwise qualifying, you can apply for a grant for energy improvements under the Great British Insulation Scheme from your local council. The money is paid to the landlord to make the improvements, but the tenants (who benefit the most) can put in the initial application and get the ball rolling. There is a big downside though: installing insulation might make you temporarily homeless--whereas the EPC-C legislation would have encouraged landlords to make their upgrades between tenancies. Because of this, think carefully before you apply. It may be that there is support in the grant for alternative accommodation but details were not available at the time of writing this advisory.
If you live in a block of flats, especially those with communal heating, you may be forced to share the worst-case scenario—relying on inefficient heating with no meter-based incentive to tenants to save on their bills. Tenants in these properties have few options—because there will normally be a mix of owner occupiers and tenants, there can be a great deal of inertia. Landlords won’t be incentivized to invest in more efficient heating, and managing agents won’t want the hassle. Even easy improvements can be difficult to achieve in a large block of flats. Top floor flats can cut their heating bills by up to 30% if there is sufficient loft insulation above them. Insulation itself is quite inexpensive, and the cost will pay back within a couple of years. The question is whether these occupants can work together to push for the necessary changes. If your building uses an oil-fired boiler, see if you can get interest up amongst the other occupants to support changing to an air source heat pump, or at least an efficient gas boiler. Getting a consensus with fellow occupants of your building might take time, but it could improve things for all of you. Spreading costs may result in a one-off fee which pays back in the very short term.
If you are above the grant threshold, ask your landlord to make some small improvements that don’t cost much but can make a big difference to your bills and your comfort. It costs them a lot to lose tenants, so they may be convinced to do some things to keep you on board. Loft insulation could be viable, if this is under control of their ownership. If you have an individual meter, but no TRVs (thermostatic valves), see if they agree to install these. It gives you better control over your radiators—but its really only useful if some radiators provide too much heat as it allows you to turn them down.
There are also things you can do on an individual basis. Some of these measures will only make sense if you plan to rent your property for more than one year, but some of them are fairly portable—it's a bit of a gamble but may be worth it for you.
If your lighting is not 100% LED, replace the bulbs. You can save up to 90% of your cost of lighting with LEDs compared to halogens. Some halogen fittings won’t take LEDs so be sure to remove the bulb and take a good photo of the fitting and get advice if you’re unsure. Online lighting sites can be very helpful. Payback is between 1 year (if you are home most of the time) and 2 years if not. And if you really need to, you can take them with you if you save the old ones for re-fitting.
Draught-proof all your windows and external doors. Research what to do where, since it is possible to DIY this but poor choices in materials or type of draughtproofing is common. If you are a long-term tenant, splurge on getting this done professionally.
If you have rooms prone to overheating, consider buying blinds or curtain lining with a reflective surface facing the window. If you can splurge, there are blinds made with fine perforated or woven materials which are purpose-made to reflect the sun’s rays; they cut down on glare. With some of them you can still see through the blinds (but they’re very difficult to see through from outside so great for privacy). Note that these don’t work as well as external blinds, but they can help and in the long term are a better investment than air conditioning.
Ensure that ventilation in your kitchen and bathrooms works properly. Although it isn’t spelled out in detail, your landlord is obliged to provide compliant ventilation much as they must provide working plumbing. This is backed up with current building regulations Part F which requires all properties to have sufficient ventilation. Old units may not be working properly, forcing you to leave windows open in bathrooms—this can work but you will lose much more heat through open windows than you will through operating a mechanical ventilation system. Don’t make the mistake of blocking up trickle vents in windows as some do thinking they lose too much heat; these are there for much-needed ventilation and the heat loss is really quite small.
Hot water accounts for up to 25% of energy use for the typical property. Many shower heads can accommodate an aerator. This is a small washer which reduces the water flow but adds aeration. This improves the feel and experience so that the shower still delivers. Most aerators can be DIY fitted but seek advice to make sure you buy the correct type for your shower head, or even consider replacing the shower head with a water-saving model.
Don’t turn heating on more than twice a day. It is cheaper to run it longer for two cycles than shorter for 3 cycles.
Of course, there are many other things to do: unplug appliances when unused, use a dishwasher instead of handwashing, shorter cycles on laundry, showers rather than baths, and so forth. These tips are offered frequently on other platforms so we won’t go into details here. But it’s worth saying that taken together, good stewardship can save up to 10% of your bill without leaving you cold or uncomfortable; now is the time to get into good habits.