Rishi Sunak has changed the narrative on net zero. He claims that rolling back on the UK’s net zero targets puts him on the side of hard-working families and households – but does it really?
There is one critical, but less publicised, change that stands out as particularly pernicious and impactful – both on our planet and the poorest in society: scrapping the Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards, or MEES, for rented properties. The goal was for all new rented properties to have an EPC of C by 2025 and all existing rented properties to reach that rating by 2028. In the past, the private rental sector has housed the poorest, but as house prices have risen a wider range of people have entered that market – 30% of people in the UK now rent their homes. The scrapped EPC targets would have improved the lives of many of these people considerably.
Politicians talk about a ‘just transition’ – how does scrapping energy efficiency standards help that happen?
The Climate Change Committee has set out the annual cost of these scrapped targets to private renters – £335 each year on average. This is the average excess cost of energy in rented homes that are EPC D or below, equivalent to 350kg of CO2 per home each year. With 4.5 million such homes in the UK, that’s 1.5 million tonnes of CO2 each year.
Politicians like to talk about a ‘just transition’ – a transition to a fossil-fuel free world that leaves no-one behind. So how does scrapping energy efficiency standards for the homes of 30% of households help that happen?
Energy efficiency in our homes is at the heart of any just transition. Savings accrue disproportionately to poorer people and those without assets as well as reducing our carbon emissions.
The target for MEES in homes was a good one – one that would benefit us all and particularly some of those most likely to suffer the health and financial impacts of poorly heated and insulated homes. Now the can has been kicked still further down the road and no-one benefits, because at some point those improvements will have to be made and the longer we leave it the more expensive and difficult it will be.
Government can do a great deal to influence our journey to net zero, ensuring it is fair and doesn’t impact hard-working and poorer households – exactly the type of change the Prime Minister claims he wants to achieve. But by scrapping the MEES he has done the opposite – making hard-working tenants pay more for cold and leaky homes, and sending the message to landlords that they don’t need to get ahead of the curve. At the same time we remain further from our net zero targets. This is policy-making at its worst.
