One in ten private rented homes in England contains a serious health hazard, and over one in five renters live in fuel poverty. The sector includes some of the least efficient housing in the UK, with tenants often facing high bills and limited control over improvements.
This project examines how regulation and delivery mechanisms can improve housing quality while protecting affordability and tenant security.
Retrofitting privately rented homes presents structural challenges. Investment decisions sit largely with landlords, while many of the benefits are experienced by tenants. Regulation such as Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards can drive improvement, but only if they are ambitious, enforceable, and aligned with health and affordability outcomes.
Poorly designed reform risks limited impact or unintended harm, including rising rents or reduced housing supply.
This project responds to that complexity and seeks practical, workable reform.
The project combines research, cross-sector workshops, and policy engagement to examine how Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards can deliver meaningful change.
Work has included convening stakeholders from across retrofit, housing, health, and civil society. It has analysed proposed updates to MEES, reviewed enforcement and delivery capacity, and examined the interaction between finance, regulation, and tenant protection.
The focus has been on understanding how proposed reforms would function in real market conditions, including landlord behaviour, tenant protection, enforcement capacity, and
