Energy (in)efficiency: what tenants expect and endure in private rented housing. A final report to the Eaga Charitable Trust
Year: 2016
Type: book
Abstract: To establish whether tenants would be likely to use forthcoming legislation (under the Energy Act) to request energy efficiency improvements from their landlords and what may hold them back.4. To contribute to the development of more effective and better-informed approaches to driving up standards of energy performance in the English the PRS.This report presents the findings of research conducted between autumn 2015 and spring 2016 with 48 low-income PRS tenants in Hackney (London) and Rotherham (South Yorkshire). Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research | iiWho did we speak to?We worked with the local authorities in Hackney and Rotherham to issue a survey to 1,800 low income PRS households Hackney and Rotherham.The survey achieved a limited response rate (7 per cent) despite offering incentives and issuing additional surveys.It did, however, enable us to access 48 households for in-depth interview (23 in Rotherham and 25 in Hackney).These interviews were conducted in respondents' homes and enabled the creation of a rich and nuanced qualitative data set.Given that low income PRS tenants are known to be vulnerable and hard to reach, purposive sampling was not possible but we did manage to speak to a mix of age groups in both locations (although we struggled to recruit young renters) and a mixture of economically active and inactive respondents.The sample achieved in Hackney was ethnically diverse but mostly white-British in Rotherham.We focussed on low income households in order to afford a voice to those facing the greatest barriers to speaking out against poor housing conditions (Shelter, 2014). Key findings Finding somewhere to liveWithin the sample, private renting was no-one's first choice and difficulties accessing social housing or home ownership were the most common reasons for private renting.High demand for rental properties meant that, in both locations, respondents were compromising in terms of the location and quality of their homes, feeling that they had no choice but to accept the first place that they could afford and where the landlord would accept them. Energy (in)efficiency: what tenants expect and endure in private rented housing. A final report to the Eaga Charitable Trust
Authors: Aimee Ambrose, Lindsey Mccarthy, James Pinder
Language: English
Subfield: Pollution
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2612458541