Tenants living in some of the coldest homes in England and Wales are set to benefit from amended regulations requiring landlords to install energy efficiency measures, Energy and Clean Growth Minister Claire Perry announced today.

Since April this year, landlords who own some of the coldest privately rented homes have been required to improve these properties with energy efficiency measures where support is available to cover the costs. The new measures, announced today following a public consultation, will go further requiring landlords to contribute to the cost of upgrades.

During 2019, properties with an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating of F or G, the lowest 2 energy efficiency ratings available, must be made warmer by landlords before they can be put on the rental market for new tenancies. This is expected to cost £1,200 on average and will affect 290,000 properties, which represents around 6% of the overall domestic market.

These changes are expected to save households an average of £180 a year while reducing carbon emissions and potentially increasing property values with analysis showing the cost to the landlord would be more than offset by the increase in property value.

Energy and Clean Growth Minister Claire Perry said:

While the vast majority of landlords take great pride in the properties they own, a minority still rent out housing that is difficult to keep warm. Upgrading these homes so they are more energy efficient is one of the most effective ways to tackle fuel poverty and help bring down bills for their tenants, saving them £180 a year.

Everyone should be protected against the cold in their own home and today’s announcement will bring this reality closer.

Housing Minister Heather Wheeler MP said:

I strongly welcome these new measures, which will help improve the coldest homes, protecting tenants whilst also saving them money.

This builds on our on-going work to crack down on the small minority of rogue landlords and drive up standards in the Private Rented Sector, including through our reviews of health and safety standards and carbon monoxide alarm requirements in the home.

Excess cold is by far the largest preventable cause of death in the private rented sector. It is estimated by the World Health Organisation that 30% of avoidable winter deaths are due to people living in cold homes. These can be prevented if people were kept warm during the winter months.

Most landlords will be unaffected by the changes as their properties are already compliant. Where upgrades are necessary, the average cost to improve an F or G rated property to a band E is expected to be around £1,200 – far below the upper ceiling being brought forward under new regulations. Examples of measures include: installing floor insulation, low energy lighting or increasing loft insulation. If upgrades will cost more than £3,500, landlords will be able to register for an exemption.

Today’s measures will come into force during 2019 and will affect around 200,000 landlords, some of whom will still have access to a variety of funding schemes. This includes support from the Energy Company Obligation scheme and local grants to bring their properties up to the required standard. These measures will help to ensure the housing and energy market works for everyone by bringing greater fairness to energy costs and making renting fair and more transparent for all.

The announcement comes weeks after the first ever Green GB Week which challenged governments, businesses and civil society to rise to the challenge of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to avoid the stark and sobering risks of climate change to health and global prosperity while the UK moves to a cleaner, greener economy.

Notes to Editors:

1. When the amended regulations come into force, to register a ‘high cost’ exemption where the property cannot be improved to a band E for £3,500 or less, the landlord would be required to submit three installer quotes.

2. Current regulations, which came into force on 1 April 2018, require landlords of privately rented domestic and non-domestic properties in England or Wales to ensure their properties reach at least an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating of E before granting a new tenancy to new or existing tenants. Today’s announcement applies to domestic properties.

3. For privately rented homes in breach of the regulations, local authorities can use enforcement measures or issue a fine which is capped at £5,000. Local authorities also have powers to issue a publication penalty which would see the details of a landlord breach published on the PRS Exemptions Register.

Minister for the Middle East, Alistair Burt, said:

I am very concerned about the life sentence handed down by the Appeals Court of Bahrain today to Sheikh Ali Salman, in addition to the sentence he is currently serving. I understand that Sheikh Ali Salman now has the right of appeal against this latest sentence.

The UK continues to encourage the Government of Bahrain to deliver on its international and domestic human rights commitments.

Further information

• Follow Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt @AlistairBurtUK

• Follow the Foreign Office on Twitter @foreignoffice and Facebook

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Jeremy Heywood, Lord Heywood of Whitehall, died this morning. Lord Heywood was until recently the Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Civil Service, retiring on 24 October 2018.

Prime Minister Theresa May said:

This is extremely sad news and all of my thoughts are with Jeremy’s family and friends.

The many retirement tributes paid to Jeremy from across the political spectrum in recent weeks demonstrated his extraordinary talent supporting and advising Prime Ministers and Ministers, and leading the Civil Service with distinction.

He worked tirelessly to serve our country in the finest traditions of the Civil Service and he is a huge loss to British public life.

I will always be grateful for the support which he gave me personally and will remember his achievements across his career as we regret that he did not have the chance to offer his talents for longer in retirement.

Jeremy will be sorely missed and I send my deepest condolences to Suzanne and the children and to all his family and many friends.

Sir Mark Sedwill, Lord Heywood’s successor as Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Civil Service, said:

Jeremy made an immense contribution to public life, serving four Prime Ministers with distinction. He joined the Civil Service in 1983, advising and supporting governments through some of the most challenging episodes of the last 30 years. Jeremy was the exemplary public servant.

We will miss him more than we can say, and will be the poorer without his advice, leadership and extraordinary insight. He set the highest standards and challenged us to meet them. Jeremy was always looking to move difficult problems forward, restlessly confident to deliver a better way. He was a champion of innovation and embraced change while consolidating and protecting the best of history. He promoted a diverse and inclusive Civil Service, fit to meet the digital, commercial and policy challenges of the future.

Jeremy also considered it a privilege to lead the hundreds of thousands of civil servants up and down the country, and across the world, who work day after day to make people’s lives better.

We offer our condolences and best wishes to Jeremy’s wife Suzanne, his three children, the rest of his family and their friends.

Notes

Lord Heywood was appointed Cabinet Secretary in January 2012 and Head of the Civil Service in September 2014. Prior to that, he was Permanent Secretary at Number 10 and held a range of senior roles including Principal Private Secretary to the Prime Minister, Head of Corporate and Management Change at HM Treasury, and Principal Private Secretary to Chancellors Norman Lamont and Kenneth Clarke. He also spent time at the International Monetary Fund and at Morgan Stanley. Lord Heywood’s first job in the Civil Service was as an Economic Adviser at the Health and Safety Executive. Lord Heywood retired as Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Civil Service on 24 October 2018. He died on 4 November aged 56.

The money will be used to provide training for teachers on how to spot early signs of bullying and how to intervene appropriately. It will also be used to provide resources to support teachers in delivering lessons on LGBT issues to ensure all pupils feel accepted and included.

The Government Equalities Office has already delivered the anti-bullying programme in 1,200 schools in England – ahead of its March deadline – and is now inviting voluntary and charitable organisations to bid for £1 million of further grant funding to roll out the programme in more schools.

A further £1 million will also be available for organisations to improve LGBT people’s health and social care. The LGBT Survey found that at least 16% of survey respondents who accessed or tried to access healthcare services in the last year had a negative experience because of their sexual orientation, and over half of those surveyed who accessed or tried to access mental health services said they had to wait too long.

Minister for Women and Equalities Penny Mordaunt said:

“Everyone in this country should feel safe and happy to be who they are, to love who they love, and to live their lives without judgement or fear.

“That’s why this government is stepping up its work to tackle bullying in schools, to protect more children and to stop hatred from festering and growing into discrimination in adulthood.

“The aim of our Action Plan is that everyone can live safe, happy and healthy lives where they can be themselves without fear of discrimination.”

Today, Ms Mordaunt also announced:

• A new fund of £600,000 will also be available to local community groups, through a new LGBT Sector and Community Development Scheme to help them engage LGBT people in their area. Alongside this, these organisations will receive training and development to help them grow, mature and become more sustainable over time.

• An LGBT Advisory Panel to advise the Government on policy, act as a sounding board, and provide evidence on the experiences of LGBT people. Stonewall, the LGBT Consortium and the LGBT Foundation have already been appointed to the panel given their longstanding, wide-ranging work on LGBT equality. A further nine members will be recruited through an open process that launches this week.

The LGBT Action Plan, launched in July 2018, made 75 commitments to tackle discrimination and improve the lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in the UK. It was published alongside the results of the largest national survey of LGBT people ever undertaken. The survey, which had over 108,000 respondents, shows LGBT people are experiencing prejudice on a daily basis.

NOTES TO EDITORS:

The LGBT survey was launched in July 2017.

The LGBT Action Plan can be found here

The Advisory Panel recruitment will launch this Sunday 4 November.

The grant funding will launch during the week of Monday 5 November.

• New research commissioned to explore how widespread the practice of targeting consumers through personalised pricing and search results is
• Companies can use customer data and technology to offer different prices to consumers based on factors which may include geography and marital status
• Research comes as government held the first meeting of the Consumer Forum with government and regulators this week to discuss what more the government and regulators can do to protect vulnerable consumers

The government and the Competitions and Markets Authority (CMA) are to undertake pioneering new research into the practice of retailers targeting online shoppers and charging people different prices for the same items through personalised pricing, such as holidays, cars and household goods, it has been confirmed today (4 November 2018).

Personalised pricing involves customers spending different amounts when searching for the same products, tailored to the specific customer journey they have taken. The research will explore whether and how personalised pricing makes use of personal data points such as a consumers address, marital status, birthday and travel history.

The government-commissioned research, supported by the CMA, will explore how widespread this practice is, how businesses are applying it through different mediums like search engines, apps or comparison tools and the extent to which personalised pricing is preventing shoppers getting the best deals.

This week the Financial Conduct Authority also announced it will be investigating the issue of personalised pricing for car and home insurance policies after finding hidden discrimination between customers. The regulator’s study will assess the scale of the issue, whom it affects, and possible solutions.

Business Secretary Greg Clark said:

Ensuring markets work fairly and in the interests of consumers is a cornerstone of our modern Industrial Strategy, and I am proud to say that our consumer protection regime is among the strongest in the world.

UK businesses are leading the way in harnessing the power of new technologies and new ways of doing business, benefitting consumers and helping them save money. But we are clear that companies should not be abusing this technology and customer data to treat consumers, particularly vulnerable ones, unfairly.

The research we are undertaking will help us better understand how we can ensure businesses work in a way that is fair to consumers.

Andrea Coscelli, Chief Executive of the Competition and Markets Authority added:

With more of us shopping online, it’s important that we understand how advances in technology impact consumers. This personalised pricing research will help us stay at the forefront of emerging technology, so we can understand how best to protect people from unfair practices where they exist.

We will also use the results of the research as part of our ongoing efforts to help vulnerable consumers.

It comes as the Consumer Forum, comprised of CEOs from sector regulators and Ministers from across government, met for the first time this week time to discuss how to best work together to protect vulnerable consumers, including addressing Citizen’s Advice recent super-complaint on the ‘loyalty penalty’, and how to ensure consumers can use their own data to get the best deals.

It will play an essential role coordinating action to help consumers and address recommendations made by the National Audit Office in its report on vulnerable consumers in regulated markets last year.
The Consumer Forum is one of the commitments from the Consumer Green Paper and its areas of focus reflects the Government’s commitment to ensuring vulnerable consumers are not exploited.

The Forum, chaired by Consumer Minister Kelly Tolhurst, is made up of representatives from the CMA, Ofcom, Ofgem, Ofwat, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and the Office for Rail and Road (ORR) who will sit alongside Ministers and senior representatives from BEIS, HMT, DCMS, Defra and DfT. It will meet regularly and involve consumer organisations with a particular interest in regulated markets to inform its ambitious work.

Delivering on a commitment from the Consumer Green Paper and in an effort to better support vulnerable consumers, the UK Regulators Network also this week published a report into data sharing between energy and water companies.

The report highlights the significant benefits that can be delivered to vulnerable customers from cross-sector regulatory and industry collaboration and challenges industry to go further in their collaboration, with a continued focus to overcome challenges around customer consent, staff training and data quality.