Generation Rent demands ‘more penalties for landlords’
Tenant activist group launches ‘Raising standards, not rents’ campaign, with CEO Ben Twomey calling for tougher EPC enforcement and bigger penalties for landlords.
Generation Rent has launched a major campaign calling for limits on rent increases after energy-efficiency upgrades and harsher punishments for landlords who fail to meet the new minimum energy efficiency standards.
The campaign, ‘Raising standards, not rents’, is being funded by the European Climate Foundation.
According to Chief Executive Ben Twomey (pictured), the debate around improving the energy efficiency of rented homes has become highly contested.
Powerful forces
He says: “Getting this policy right will be crucial. Many powerful forces have criticised the push towards net zero in recent years, claiming it will cost those who can least afford to pay, while landlord lobbyists have long claimed that they will have no choice but to hike rents after retrofit work.”
In its report, Raising standards, not rents: Making energy efficiency work for private renters, Generation Rent says: “Landlords have consistently shown that they will not make energy efficiency improvements unless forced to do so.”
It’s clear that the primary reason most landlords claim to need to raise the rent is because they are able to charge more.”
It also questions claims that retrofit costs must inevitably lead to rent increases, saying: “It’s clear that the primary reason most landlords claim to need to raise the rent is because they are able to charge more on the local market and not because they have a financial need to do so.”
As part of the campaign, Generation Rent will be urging ministers to allow tenants to apply for Rent Repayment Orders where landlords fail to meet the EPC C requirement once the new Warm Homes rules come into force in 2030.
You can read the full report here.
A few questions this campaign doesn’t seem to want to answer: Why are landlords automatically assumed to be acting in bad faith? The majority provide well-maintained homes and play a crucial role in housing people who cannot or do not wish to buy. Vilifying an entire sector helps no one.
More puzzling still – why do these energy efficiency requirements only apply to rented properties? Owner-occupied homes make up the bulk of UK housing stock, yet homeowners face no comparable obligation whatsoever. If net zero is truly the goal, how does targeting the rented sector alone make any real difference to national emissions? Notably, Scotland is already consulting on extending standards to owner-occupied homes – so it can be done when there’s political will.
The government consistently approaches the rented sector with a level of suspicion and regulation it never applies elsewhere in housing. That’s not joined-up thinking – it’s scapegoating.
The question is Ben do tenants want a roof over their heads because there is an adequate supply of decent quality homes but they fail to reach an EPC C grade? Or there are no rental properties and they cannot afford to buy or and you miss a point here because they are mobile for work and it is not practical to buy they cannot get work because there are no rental homes.
You need to be very careful what you ask for it is easy to criticise landlords from your lofty position of no responsibility but they are sick to death of the constant attitude of people like you.