Holders of landlord insurance policies across the UK will this week get the chance to take part in the first contracts of the Government’s much vaunted “Green Deal” that apply to homes in the private rental sector.
A programme jointly undertaken by the Residential Landlords Association (RLA) and Enact Energy will see landlords of some of the draughtiest, dampest and coldest homes in the UK offered the chance to take part in an upgrading programme that will cover over 10,000 homes and cost £100 million over the next five years. Landlords interested in the scheme will benefit from a complete energy efficiency upgrade service including an initial property assessment followed by the implementation of the necessary upgrades identified to bring the home up to standard. The cash will not have to be found up front by the landlord but will come from grant funding and Green Deal finance.
The loans will be attached to the homes for 25 years and will be repaid via the energy bills paid by tenants. In all circumstances the surcharged energy bills will be cheaper than they would have been without the energy efficiency improvements. Although the scheme has been launched this week Green Deal finance won’t be fully available till the spring of next year.
Chairman of the RLA, Alan Ward, said they had undertaken the initiative as they feared many landlords would back away from the Green Deal because they didn’t understand it. He went on to say: “Green Deal and Energy Company Obligation (ECO) offers landlords a significant opportunity to improve the energy efficiency and in some cases the appearance of their property, with the added benefit of grant funding and long term finance. We aim to be the major service for Green Deal and ECO for the private rental sector and are planning to help up to 10,000 landlords to upgrade their properties over the next five years.”