Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether local authorities are legally empowered to enforce compliance with energy efficiency standards for homes.

Since 1 April 2020, The Energy Efficiency (Private Rented Property)(England and Wales) Regulations 2015 (“the Regulations”) require that, subject to certain exemptions, all domestic private rented sector landlords improve their properties to a minimum energy efficiency standard of Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) band E. Local authorities have a range of powers under the Regulations to enforce compliance with the minimum energy efficiency standard, including the ability to serve a compliance notice, a financial penalty and/or a publication penalty that makes details of the breach available to the public.

The Department has launched a landlord exemptions register (“the PRS Exemptions Register”) which is used by local authorities to help target their enforcement activity, and is conducting enforcement pilots with local authorities to develop best practice around enforcement of the Regulations.

In addition, local authorities use the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (“HHSRS”), a health-based, risk assessment framework, to evaluate 29 specific hazards, including excess cold, in homes. For private rented sector properties, if a HHSRS assessment identifies a hazard at 'category 1' level, then local authorities have a duty to take formal enforcement action, ranging from a Hazard Awareness Notice to an Emergency Remedial Action (where remedial works are carried out immediately by the local authority and the landlord billed). The HHSRS also forms part of the Decent Homes Standard, the minimum standard that social housing should meet.