Landlords are failing to take advantage of a government insulation scheme – leaving tenants stuck with cold, inefficient houses.
The Great British Insulation Scheme (GBIS) is designed to contribute partial funding to deliver insulation to the least energy-efficient homes in Britain but Ofgem data shows so far just 6% of households upgraded under the scheme were privately rented.
This is despite the energy efficiency of privately rented homes lagging behind social housing in the North West: 49.5% of private rentals fall below the EPC rating of ‘C’, compared to 29.2% of social housing.
The ‘C’ rating is a benchmark the Government wants all landlords to reach by 2030 as part of their proposed Warm Homes Plan announced in August. ‘C’ indicates a property typically has good wall or roof insulation, double-glazed windows and an energy-efficient boiler – which usually translates to lower energy bills.
The private rental sector makes up around 21% of households in Greater Manchester, and in England the figure stands at 19% – a total of around 4.4 million homes.
The GBIS scheme began in April 2023 and is expected to run until spring 2026, and the latest data shows that from the start of the scheme to September 2024 private and social rental property made up 17% of the homes which had been upgraded.
GBIS has been out of reach for most tenants in Greater Manchester
There is an obligation on energy companies to deliver energy-saving measures to consumers under GBIS.
This is administered by the regulator Ofgem on behalf of the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero but since the £1 billion scheme began just 2,012 households in Greater Manchester had been upgraded by September this year.
Vanessa, 46, who rents privately in Manchester, has a bills-included tenancy and her landlord controls when her heating comes on and off and at what temperature the heating is triggered.
She said: “At one point we had to open all the windows in the kitchen to trigger the thermostat.
“I have complained about the heating a few times but it seems to just be a problem with the house. I won’t raise the problem again now.
“I’m not even sure if we have insulation; I was shown the energy rating when I moved in. Of course, it’s not up to me, the landlord should be applying for us.”
Current requirements mean landlords only have to prove a minimum energy efficiency rating of EPC ‘E’ – meaning landlords can legally let a property with as little as 39% energy efficiency.
As well as low-income households, GBIS is also available to those in the least energy-efficient homes in lower council tax bands.
Your Home Better, a non-profit, independent retrofit service for residents in Greater Manchester, is currently working to connect residents with insulation schemes in Salford, Trafford and Stockport as part of GMCA’s Feel the Difference Campaign.
The Your Home Better service guides Greater Manchester residents from the initial home assessment to sourcing contractors and ensuring the work is done well.
Charlie Baker, project and technical lead at Your Home Better, explained that because GBIS only offers a contribution towards costs rather than funding entire projects, homeowners want more say on the type of insulation installed – which energy companies are not prepared for, as similar schemes have tended to be fully funded.
Baker said: “We’ve ended up in a situation where all that is on offer is three-and-a-half inches of polystyrene for external wall insulation – where in a lot of houses that is not suitable insulation.
“Because energy companies are used to giving out free work under the parallel ECO insulation scheme, they are not used to giving customers much choice over what changes are made to their homes.
“Sometimes the amount of contribution homeowners get from GBIS is barely worth the paperwork that it takes you to qualify and apply for it.”
The service is working with GMCA to put together a loan fund where GBIS would be used to top up the funding in some cases so that everyone including those less able to pay has access to insulation work where they have more control.
The 2,012 households upgraded under GBIS since April 2023 have been unevenly distributed across Greater Manchester’s 10 boroughs.
Salford has had having the third-highest rate of upgrades in Britain per 100k households at 498 – more than twice the rate of any other borough in Greater Manchester.
In Wigan and Trafford the uptake has been much lower with 70 and 100 homes upgraded per 100k households.
There is a disconnect between tenants and landlords
Renters are able to request a home assessment under the scheme but many are reluctant to ask their landlord to make the recommended improvements.
James Dyson, senior researcher for climate change think tank E3G, explained that the uptake for the GBIS scheme has been low overall but that it’s much worse in the private rental sector due to this disconnect between the landlord and the tenant.
Dyson said: “Landlords just aren’t interested.
“There are broad problems with all government schemes which make it quite difficult for households to access them and that can apply to a landlord, an owner-occupier or a social housing tenant.
“The first problem is that perhaps the tenant might be contacted by energy suppliers for upgrades because the local authority engagement will point them towards the tenant.
“Then the tenant may be too afraid to ask the landlord to make the changes to the property even if they know there is a lot of funding behind it.”
Turning up the heat: Solutions are starting to take shape
From April 2025 the Government will increase the amount of grant funding a landlord can receive on the first home they upgrade through GBIS.
The first home a landlord registers will be eligible for £30,000 of funding but from their second home thereafter they will have to contribute 50% of the costs.
Since the Government recommitted to the 2030 target for all rented homes to be at least EPC ‘C’ rated, more landlords are beginning to engage with the scheme.
But this figure remains dramatically lower than owner-occupied homes.
Ofgem data shows between June and September this year, privately rented homes in receipt of GBIS upgrades have been more than double those recorded in all previous months combined since the scheme began with socially rented property making similar increases.
Dyson added: “The Renters Rights Bill will do one main thing which is to remove Section 21 evictions and as a result tenants might feel more confident that they can make a request to a landlord about an energy efficiency improvement without feeling at risk of a no-fault eviction.
“Under the government plans a lot of good landlords which are renting property below that level of EPC ‘C’ will perhaps voluntarily make the upgrades because most landlords do not want to be contravening the law.
“But also we need an enforcement regime so that landlords who might not voluntarily or might not know about the requirement do comply with it.”
A Department for Energy Security and Net Zero spokesperson said: “The energy shocks of recent years have shown the urgent need to upgrade British homes and secure our energy independence.
“Our plans for private and social rented homes to achieve Energy Performance Certificate C or equivalent by 2030 will help deliver the safety and security of warmer, cheaper homes, while lifting one million households out of fuel poverty.
“We will work with landlords to ensure all homes are safe and warm. As part of this, our Warm Homes Plan will support investment in insulation and low carbon heating – with up to 300,000 homes to benefit from upgrades next year.”
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