Give renters power to demand home insulation - Green Party

The Green Party has unveiled plans to give renters powers to force landlords to insulate their homes as part of a £145bn investment plan.

The scheme would allow tenants to insist landlords apply for grants or low-interest government-backed loans to improve the energy efficiency of homes.

Carla Denyer, the party's co-leader, said the scheme would help "make every house, flat and bedsit a proper home".

The party announced the policy ahead of its annual conference on Friday.

The Green Party of England and Wales said, in office, it would spend £145bn over 10 years on a "fairer, greener homes guarantee", giving grants and loans to make homes more energy-efficient.

Grants would be targeted at homeowners living in poverty, while other property owners would be able to take out property-linked loans, to be paid off "via savings from reduced energy bills", the party said.

Rent controls, long campaigned for by the party, would prevent landlords passing loan repayments on to tenants, according to the Greens.

Making the keynote speech at the party's conference in Brighton, alongside co-leader Adrian Ramsay, Ms Denyer said: "Solutions to the climate crisis are the same as the solutions to the cost-of-living crisis.

"Every home should be properly insulated and free from damp and mould - we would give renters the legal right to demand this from their landlords."

In a BBC interview, Mr Ramsay rejected the idea the policy might push landlords out of the housing market, arguing they would benefit from lower borrowing costs to boost the value of their homes through improvement works.

The UK has some of the oldest housing stock in Europe. According to government figures, 57% of households in the UK are living in a home with an Energy Efficiency Rating so low, it does not meet the Decent Homes Standard.

In September, prime minister Rishi Sunak announced he was scrapping the requirement on landlords to ensure all rental properties had an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) of grade C or higher, from 2025.

The conference could be the final pre-election gathering for a party that has become an increasingly effective campaigning force.

Plans to quadruple the number of Green MPs have been a theme of this year's party conference

Winning four seats at the next election was "absolutely realistic" despite pressure from Labour, Ms Denyer told BBC Radio 4's Today programme..

The Green Party has only ever had one MP, Caroline Lucas, whose Brighton Pavilion seat is a target for Labour.

Ms Lucas, one of the party's best-known figures and a former leader, is stepping down from Parliament after 13 years as an MP.

In their speech to the conference, Ms Denyer and Mr Ramsay said the party aimed not just to keep Brighton Pavilion, but to win the newly-created seats of Bristol Central, Waveney Valley and North Herefordshire.

The party had its best-ever results in May's local elections across England, winning 241 seats and taking overall control of a council for the first time - in Mid Suffolk.

The success was "the latest in a line of record-breaking results," according to Ms Denyer.

"In the last four elections, we've more than quadrupled our local election council representation," she added, giving her party hope they could repeat the feat at the general election, expected next year.

Mr Ramsay told the BBC his party was "open" to striking deals with other "progressive" parties at the election, to help achieve its goals.

But he added there had been "no interest so far" in the idea from either Labour or the Liberal Democrats.

At the last general election in 2019, the Green Party formed an anti-Brexit electoral pact with the Lib Dems and Plaid Cymru, with the parties agreeing not to stand against each other in dozens of seats.

The party is now facing some financial pressures, and has proposed increasing membership fees by 50% to raise funds.