Give landlords tax breaks to make 'Europe's leakiest homes' more energy ... trends now
Tory MPs are pushing the government to give domestic landlords tax cuts if they make their homes more energy efficient in order to cut bills and make the UK less reliant on foreign gas.
Jeremy Hunt is being urged to give incentives to retrofit improvements including to insulation to improve the UK housing stock, which has been called the leakiest in Europe.
It comes as other methods of getting people to make their homes falter. The Great British Insulation Scheme, which helps with the cost of improving heat retention in homes, will take decades to hit its target at its current rate of take-up.
Green Tories are now urging the Chancellor to take a Tory approach to getting landlords to improve the homes they rent out.
Former deputy prime minister Damian Green said: 'While the price of gas is now falling, improving energy efficiency is the only way to guarantee lower household bills permanently - by reducing the amount of gas we need to burn to stay warm. The last two years have shown the costs of our reliance on imported gas.
'Reducing this energy waste will bolster our national energy security. For both homeowners and renters, this also means lower household bills in the long term, reducing our emissions and saving households money.
That is why the government should offer tax incentives to help people improve their energy efficiency, including landlords. One way to encourage more landlords to retrofit their houses is to let them claim the costs of energy efficiency improvements as a tax deductible expense. This would be a win-win for landlords and tenants, improving the value of the property and lowering energy bills.'
The Great British Insulation Scheme, which helps with the cost of improving heat retention in homes, will take decades to hit its target at its current rate of take-up.
The Conservative Environment Network has previously urged the chancellor to use a range of tax breaks to improve the energy efficiency of homes.
They include lower stamp duty rates for buyers who purchase well-insulated homes and rebates for those who carry out work after moving in.
Sam Payne, CEN's climate programme manager, added: 'Improving energy efficiency is vital to reduce our gas usage, in turn making us more energy secure and less reliant on imported gas. It means less heat escaping through leaky walls, windows and doors, resulting in lower household bills. With 70 per cent of 2019 Conservative voters thinking the government should increase investment in energy efficiency, it is also a vote winner.
However, this can’t be achieved through regulation alone. There must be appropriate incentives, namely through tax cuts, to make it as cheap and easy for people to boost their homes’ energy efficiency. Making energy efficiency upgrades tax deductible for landlords is a straightforward way of encouraging these improvements in the private rented sector, to the benefit of both tenants through lower bills and of landlords through more
