Landlords to face fine if they are energy inefficient

The government is to heat up legislation forcing landlords to pay a fine if they rent properties without proper insulation.The new strictures on the quality of homes are included in the "green deal" which the government will put before parliament in December.

By the autumn of 2012, the government says the scheme will enable homeowners to make their house or flat energy-efficient with no immediate payments.Companies would install loft and cavity-wall insulation draught-proof doors and windows and the homeowner would pay the firm back through their energy bills over up to 20 years. The aim would be for the homeowner to barely notice the repayments due to lower energy bills.

Recent attempts to encourage private landlords to improve their housing stock have been unsuccessful. In the first two years of the carbon emissions reduction target scheme, only 1.9% of loft insulation installations were in the private rental sector compared to 91% in the owner-occupier sector.

The government will press councils to use existing legislation more actively, under which they are able to compel a landlord to carry out the work or do the work themselves and charge the landlord. They can also impose a fine of £5,000.

The forthcoming legislation would mean that by 2015, any tenant who asks for energy efficiency improvements cannot be reasonably refused by landlords. Local authorities could have the power to insist landlords improve the worst-performing properties.