Renters in the UK are missing out on potential savings of £990 million on energy bills because their properties are lacking basic energy efficiency measures like insulation.
According to research carried out by energy supplier E.ON, the country’s 2.4 million renters could save up to £400 a year.
E.ON’s study of 10,000 households found that only two out of ten renters have made any attempt to make their homes more energy efficiency compared with 78% of homeowners, who have made some sort of improvement.
And a quarter of renters in London admitted that they were unaware that savings of around £400 a year could be made through simple measures such as double-glazing, loft insulation and cavity wall insulation compared with nine out of ten renters in Scotland.
E.ON blames the confusion over responsibility between landlords and tenants for energy efficiency improvements for the failure and is calling on landlords to make their properties ‘energy fit’.
While over two-thirds of renters want their landlords to make changes to their property to improve energy efficiency, the same proportion think that their landlords would not agree to make any changes. And some 8% are waiting for their landlords to make requested energy saving modifications to their properties.
But only one in seven renters feel that they should be the ones to take home energy efficiency measures themselves.
“We’d urge both renters and landlords to think seriously about making some improvements to their properties,” says David Bird of E.ON’s customer operations. “In some cases, renters can be eligible for free cavity wall and loft insulation, and costs for installation can often be much cheaper than you’d think.”
Richard Lambert, CEO of the National Landlords Association (NLA), agrees that both tenants and landlords should realise that there are ways of improving the energy efficiency of properties.
For further information:
www.eonenergy.com/
www.landlords.org.uk
Related stories:
UK home insulation levels making slow progress (8-Mar)
Radical improvement in efficiency needed to cut energy demand, says report (1-Mar)
Energy efficiency could save businesses money from thin air, says Carbon Trust (27-Jan)
Subsidised insulation could lift 1.3 million UK homes out of fuel poverty (14-Dec 2011)
Article source: http://www.energyefficiencynews.com/i/5079/
