Croydon Council is offering private landlords advice on accessing grants for home insulation schemes to help reduce heating bills and fuel poverty among the boroughs’ private renters – while also threatening fines of up to £4,000 for those who don’t bring their properties up to standard.
The council has announced a “green homes programme” which they say will help save private tenants money on their energy bills by making their properties more energy efficient.
Smart move: the council is offering advice on accessing grants for insulation
An energy performance certificate (EPC), which tells you how energy efficient your home is, sees an independent inspector provide a grade from A through G.
By improving EPC ratings in more properties, Croydon seeks to address domestic heating and electricity usage, which makes up almost half of CO2 emissions in the borough.
The council has already identified 1,400 homes in the borough which fall below the legal minimum energy efficiency standard, with EPCs rating of F and G. Heating, insulation, and other factors can lead to low EPC ratings, and very low ratings can lead to properties not being allowed to be rented out by law, and the landlords facing penalties of thousands of pounds.
Through the Minimum Energy Efficiency Standard programme, the council is advising private landlords to increase energy performance certificate ratings, keeping more homes compliant, meanwhile bringing down home energy costs for tenants.
The service offers tenants and homeowners advice and support accessing external grants from the government and energy companies to insulate their homes and improve the energy efficiency of their properties.
The council has recently brought its Croydon Healthy Homes service in-house, recruiting a team of qualified advisors to offer a more flexible approach to addressing fuel poverty. The team will be working closely with other council services and the voluntary community sector.
“We have set a target for Croydon to reach carbon neutrality by 2030, and home energy consumption is the most significant contributor to CO2 emissions in the borough, so we must do everything in our power to bring those numbers down,” said Muhammad Ali, the council cabinet member for sustainable Croydon.
“If we can get a majority of the properties we have already identified to meet or exceed the minimum energy standard, it will be a major step toward our goal.
“This is also about affordability – if too many properties fail their EPC rating in Croydon, that will take them off the market and drive rent costs up. Inefficiency is also costing tenants money on their increasingly high fuel bills – leading to fuel poverty – so it is deeply beneficial to provide as much support as we can to families, all while reaching our climate goals.”
The council’s own housing stock has an average EPC rating of C. Where individual properties fall below a C, the council is working to improve these properties as part of its asset management strategy.
More information on Croydon Healthy Homes and the Minimum Energy Efficiency Standard programme can be found on the council website, as well as tips on how to lower your own fuel bills.
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