According to research by Npower, 84% of landlords are concerned about the energy efficiency of their housing stock while 69% of them are stating lack of funding as the key barrier to making improvements. Many landlords appear to be reluctant to take advantage of the funding available with only 31% indicating to make use of the Green Deal. The ‘Npower housing energy index’ echoes the views of 100 senior decision makers representing a proportion of social landlords and 300 tenants and reveals the scale of those holding back on investments. 25% are citing a lack of finance while 52% are not considering investing in renewable heating measures by 2020. What was also interesting from the research was that nearly 82% of landlords think energy efficiency is the joint responsibility of landlord and tenant , while only 43% of tenants think it is. 57% of tenants think landlords should pay for energy improvement installations, while landlords believe the government should provide funding.
The research showed a clear need to improve energy efficiency across housing stock and a crucial need to educate tenants to encourage energy-saving habits which should be advised from their landlord. No matter what investment landlords make for renewable technologies tenants need to save energy through changes in behaviour such as turning off lights and appliances at the mains.
It will be essential to overcome the finance barrier if landlords are to invest in improving housing stock. By investigating funding options such as the Green Deal, landlords may find implementing energy saving, renewable technologies more feasible than first thought.