I wanted to share my thoughts after seeing the shocking stories included in the BBC documentary Britain’s Mouldy Homes, which exposed the real life suffering of UK households who are forced to live in fuel poverty. It was distressing to see the terrible housing conditions in which people have to live, which included those of Sinead and her son Aziyah, right here in Brighton and Hove.
As far back as 2012, Brighton & Hove Energy Services Co-op (BHESCo) has been working with campaign groups like National Energy Action, Citizens Advice and Fuel Poverty Action to help long suffering tenants living in poor quality homes. We have been visiting tenants who cannot afford to heat and power their leaky, mouldy and damp smelling homes.
Private Sector Housing that doesn't meet the Decent Homes Standard
Like many communities across the UK, private and social housing that doesn’t meet the decent homes standard is owned by private landlords, mostly companies, who have made insufficient effort to improve the thermal comfort of their properties, instead choosing to extract as much profit from them as possible. Many of these landlords live abroad, while their properties are managed by local agents.
BHESCo have visited hundreds of similar homes to Sinead and her son’s, where children suffer chronic bronchitis, asthma, or both, missing out on school as a direct result of living in damp, cold homes.
It is no surprise to us that BBC Panorama selected Brighton and Hove to highlight this problem, as the city presents the perfect storm of conditions that exacerbate respiratory conditions, as much social housing is not owned by the local authority, but instead rented from private property investment companies for which the local authority is powerless and dependent. Almost 36% of homes in Brighton and Hove are in the private rental sector, including emergency and temporary housing.
More than half of the homes in Brighton & Hove were built before 1945, especially in the area around the seafront, where high levels of fuel poverty exist. Over the last 5 years, Brighton and Hove City Council have registered 4,550 complaints about housing in the city. Unfortunately, they do not have the resources to protect the vulnerable people living in these homes.
The damage caused by 'Buy To Let' properties
The main problem is that since the 1980’s government has tolerated the growth of investment homes, without establishing proper regulation to protect tenant’s rights against landlord profit taking at the cost of the tenant’s wellbeing. This is creating two problems; a lack of affordable housing and a crisis for first time buyers who are outpriced from the market. As a result, unprecedented levels of adult children, or 1 in every 4.5 are living with their parents because they cannot afford to rent or buy their own home. Clearly, this is the effect of heartless capitalism and a laissez faire attitude toward the housing market that has been consistently ignored by legislators.
The Renters Rights’ Bill will not address this increasingly pressing problem, since enforcing the Decent Homes Standard will depend on an already overstretched local authority’s resources to challenge a landlord on behalf of a tenant
From our experience, many tenants are reluctant to make a complaint about their living conditions through fear of a retaliatory rent increase or the threat of eviction.
Introducing higher standards for rented housing
The only way that this problem can be solved, is to bring forwards the changes to Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards (MEES) regulation from 2028 to 2026. Government must mandate that ‘Buy to Let’ mortgages comply with new MEES regulations, eliminate any exemptions to the regulation, and to allow tenants to report their landlord to an independent body. This body could operate on behalf of the Local Authority to enforce this regulation, with costs financed from the penalties levied on non-compliant landlords.
Introducing stricter measures on rental properties may result in some landlords deciding to exit the market, which we see as a good thing, resulting in an increased supply of homes in the market for first time buyers. The price of homes will decline because of this increased supply. Tenants would have better health outcomes as a consequence of living in warm and well insulated homes, leading to less pressure on the NHS each winter.
Were Government, through the central bank, to have the wisdom to encourage lower mortgage rates for first time buyers, more homes will become available for younger people, allowing them to participate, invest in improving the standard of their homes, kick starting a housing revolution for the public good. It becomes fairly obvious who government has been protecting and the impact that past inaction has had on the majority of our population.
If you or someone you know needs help with their heating or energy bills, please complete our Online Referral Form.
For media enquiries about BHESCo’s fuel poverty alleviation work please contact info@bhesco.co.uk, or call 01273 284471
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