Call to protect tenants from rent rises after EPC upgrades

Call to protect tenants from rent rises after EPC upgrades

0:01 AM, 2nd July 2025, About 2 weeks ago 5

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Private tenants will be protected from rent rises under an amendment to the Renters’ Rights Bill when a landlord carries out publicly funded EPC improvement work.

Generation Rent is supporting an amendment proposed by Baroness Jenny Jones.

It says the move will stop public cash being used from ‘enriching private landlords’ by limiting rent rises after the EPC work is complete.

Generation Rent also, bizarrely, claims that ‘The amendment would mean more landlords could afford to meet planned Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards’.

It adds: “but their tenants would also benefit from lower bills, rather than face a rent rise that could cancel out the savings.”

Landlords will increase rents

The organisation’s research and policy manager, Parissa Zand, said: “Millions of renters are living in cold homes with shocking levels of mould and damp, while we regularly struggle to pay our energy bills.

“These issues ripple across our lives, impacting our mental and physical health and forcing us to make really difficult decisions like having to go without food or go into debt to pay our bills.”

She added: “The government’s ambition to lift renters out of fuel poverty is welcome.

“But landlord groups are already warning they will increase rents as a result.

“The danger is that public money could be used to enrich landlords rather than benefit tenants.”

Cancel energy savings

Ms Zand continued: “We are already seeing cases where landlords have evicted tenants who rely on benefits after publicly funded energy efficiency upgrades, so they could get a better price for their property.

“Without protections, landlords could easily raise the rent to effectively cancel out their tenants’ energy bill savings.”

The organisation also says that having a no rent rise assurance would encourage more low-income tenants to take up the available EPC grants.

Recent polling by Generation Rent found that 42% of private renters in England and Wales, that’s nearly four million people, regularly struggle to pay energy bills.

It says the figure is almost double the government’s estimate of renters in fuel poverty.

Improve EPCs in rented homes

Generation Rent points to the government’s Warm Homes Plan which offers grants for landlords to improve energy efficiency in properties rented to low-income tenants.

Under the scheme, landlords must declare they ‘understand rent should not be increased as a result of upgrades’, but the group says enforcement is lacking.

Baroness Jones’ amendment would strengthen this by allowing the First Tier Tribunal to treat grant-funded improvements as tenant contributions, preventing them from justifying rent rises.

She said: “I’m putting my amendment because I’m worried that a good policy on energy efficiency will end up annoying the very people it is aiming to help.

“The government are doing the right thing for the climate with higher energy efficiency standards.

“They are doing the right thing for landlords with grants to help them meet those standards.”

She adds: “The only people who don’t get a guaranteed better life are the poor tenants who have to put up with the dust, noise and inconvenience of the energy improvements being done, but without knowing if their rent will be going up as their energy bills go down.”


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Jo Westlake

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11:54 AM, 2nd July 2025, About 2 weeks ago

Do these grants actually exist?
I rent to several low Income households but whenever I enquire about grants I'm told I don't qualify.
How exactly are we supposed to know how much income a long term tenant has? We may know how much income they had many years ago when they first applied to rent the property but there is no way of us knowing how much they earn now.

One of mine receives UC and PIP. Should that be insufficient enough to qualify for an energy improvement grant? Last time I asked I was told one bedroom flats didn't qualify.
Another is a low wage couple with 2 children. Presumably UC pushes them well out of qualifying?

Beaver

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14:03 PM, 2nd July 2025, About 2 weeks ago

Reply to the comment left by Jo Westlake at 02/07/2025 - 11:54
I've never been eligible for a grant. And even if they do exist, for many properties at D or below the cost of a grant will only partly meet the costs of any upgrades.

So landlords are entitled to raise rents and I believe that's already been confirmed to the government.

If the government confirmed that you weren't able to raise rents if you'd taken a grant then it would be crazy to apply for a grant anyway and you'd be better off spending the minimum and applying for an exemption.

Government policy in this area has never made sense.

Dylan Morris

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8:51 AM, 3rd July 2025, About A week ago

So how long will this inability to raise rents last ? A year, two years, three years ? Or forever ?
I’ve only had one tenant who had work done under the Warm Front scheme. All they do is top up the loft insulation and put some sticky draft reducing tape around all the doors. They won’t fit cavity wall insulation. Hardly worth the bother just buy a few rolls of insulation from Wickes and do the job yourself for £150.

Beaver

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10:20 AM, 3rd July 2025, About A week ago

Reply to the comment left by Dylan Morris at 03/07/2025 - 08:51
And if it's not you as the landlord that's eligible for the grant, but the TENANT who makes the property eligible for the grant and you then apply, then you would have allowed the tenant to take control of your property by stopping you from raising the rent for an indeterminate period, or possibly forever.

So I've never been eligible, my tenants have never been eligible, but why would you ever take the risk of applying for a grant if this proposal came in?

Mike Smith

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14:27 PM, 4th July 2025, About A week ago

Reply to the comment left by Jo Westlake at 02/07/2025 - 11:54
I don't think these grants exist as I get rejected from them too

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