Landlords’ Multi-Billion-Pound Fuel Poverty Hit

The government’s fuel poverty strategy has left social landlords responsible for funding billions of pounds of improvement works, senior housing figures have warned. The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has published proposals to scrap its legally binding target to eradicate fuel poverty by 2016. Instead, it has set a new target of ‘as many fuel poor homes as is reasonably practicable’ to meet a minimum ‘C’ energy performance certificate ranking by 2030. The new targets have been condemned by fuel poverty campaigners as a reduction in ambition. Social landlords have also questioned whether they are achievable given the strategy also confirms plans to reduce the energy company obligation, which funds most work to make homes more energy efficient. The exact cost to social landlords of meeting the target is hard to pin down – estimates range between £7.2bn to £27bn. Read more on Inside Housing.