Costs of making rented homes greener are 'too high'

Landlords in the private rented sector say the costs of making homes more energy efficient are too high, a report has warned.

Citizens Advice Scotland (CAS) carried out research into privately rented homes, which make up 14% of Scotland’s housing stock.

They found landlords were keen to make their properties greener, but felt stymied by the costs of retrofitting.

The report said: “While there is clearly appetite in the sector to install energy efficiency measures, those surveyed provided a range of barriers preventing or disincentivising them from doing more in this area.

“The key barrier identified was cost; participants felt there was a high initial cost to installation yet a slow and small return on investment; they also noted a lack of clear and useful information about financial support available to the sector.

“Time, unfit standards, and lack of information are also preventing the private rented sector from completing energy efficiency retrofit.”

CAS says there needs to be more financial support from the Scottish Government to help landlords retrofit their properties.

CAS spokeswoman, Kate Morrison, said: “Our research into the private rented sector is all about finding out how likely people in Scotland are to make the changes necessary to meet net-zero.

“What we are finding is that both landlords and tenants support the target but tenants are unsure of what role they need to play, and landlords feel there are too many barriers in place to making the necessary changes.

“This is a problem that needs to be addressed, because there will be no net-zero without significant change in the energy efficiency of our housing stock.

“And failure to make the necessary changes now will just mean it is more expensive to do so in the end.”