A council has just announced that due to its actions numbers of private renters living in poorly heated properties have significantly dropped.

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PRS properties must have an EPC rating of E or above unless exempted and Bath & North East Somerset Council trading standards officers found rented homes with EPCs lower than the requirement.

Landlords with properties ‘not up to scratch’ had to upgrade the accommodation’s energy efficiency performance, failure to do so would result in a £5,000 fine per property unless they had a registered exemption.

When properties were found to below par the landlords were issued with Compliance Notices and with the council’s campaign improvements have been carried out in more than 70 properties.

Apparently the council is now claiming that with its new energy efficiency measures it has seen a massive fall in annual energy costs with an average £388 per property and has assisted saving over 125.7 tonnes of CO2 across the district.

Councillor Tim Ball, cabinet member for Neighbourhood Services, says: “With the cost of energy rising rapidly it is important for tenants in private rented accommodation to know that their property is fuel efficient.

“The campaign helped us to raise awareness of the Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards regulations amongst landlords, letting agents and tenants and to identify properties that did not have an EPC of at least band E.

“The success of this campaign is a positive step towards improving the energy efficiency of homes in our area and, as domestic properties produce around 40% of carbon emissions in our district, it will help towards our target of net zero emissions by 2030.”