Housing: Energy

(asked on 5th January 2022) - View Source

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps the Government is taking to enable leaseholders to install energy saving measures in their homes which require freeholder consent in the event of absent or non-responsive freeholders.


Answered by
Eddie Hughes Portrait
Eddie Hughes
This question was answered on 14th January 2022

The Government set out its aspiration in the Clean Growth Strategy for as many homes as possible to be upgraded to Energy Performance Certificate Band C by 2035, where practical, cost-effective and affordable.

A new £450 million three-year Boiler Upgrade Scheme will see households, including leasehold households, offered grants of up to £5,000 for low-carbon heating systems so they cost the same as a gas boiler now.

Where leases require freeholder consent to these kinds of energy-efficiency improving works and the freeholder is absent or non-responsive, leaseholders can already apply to the First-tier Tribunal to appoint a new property manager.

Leaseholders are already able to exercise their Right to Manage, which gives them the ability to take over the freeholder's management functions in respect of their building. They can also opt to join together and buy the freehold of their building as part of collective enfranchisement. The law is clear in that, subject to certain conditions, leaseholders of flats have the right to enfranchise their building as a group if they and their building qualify.

The Government is considering proposals from the Law Commission that would enable greater numbers of leaseholders to take on management and ownership of their buildings themselves.

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