Tenants for Climate Justice

Living in warm, energy-efficient and healthy homes should no longer be a luxury that only the privileged few can afford. With this campaign, we’re working to ensure no one is left out in the cold. 

We’re now taking our Warm Homes for All campaign forward by focusing on an often overlooked group in the climate movement—tenants in private rental and those living in social housing. Retrofitting Ireland’s homes will require tailor-made tools for the rental sector.

We’re campaigning for the Government to follow through on its commitments to introduce minimum BERs* (Building Energy Rating) in the private rental sector. We’re also calling on the Government to retrofit all social housing by 2030, starting with the worst quality buildings—current government policies plan to retrofit just 25% of social housing units by 2030. The Government needs to urgently step up its ambition for retrofitting public housing and fund local authorities appropriately on a multi-year basis to do so. 

Graphic harvesting by Hazel Hurley

Our Tenants for Climate Justice campaign focuses on communities who are most left behind and are the most vulnerable. There is currently no way for tenants to access the retrofitting schemes, and no penalties for landlords who don’t avail of the incentives to retrofit the houses they rent. Social housing and private rentals represent a critical opportunity for targeted interventions for a socially-just energy transition—placing our campaign at the intersection of climate justice, social justice, human rights and anti-poverty movements.

We wouldn’t let a landlord ignore a leaking roof, and yet, people are forced to live in cold, damp and heat-leaking homes. Retrofitting homes is as important as fixing a leaking roof. A landlord wouldn't suffer to live in a cold, leaky home so why should their tenants? 

21% of renters went without heating in 2023, compared to 6% of owner-occupied households. Currently, over 55% of private rentals have a BER of D or worse, with 20% rated F or G. People living in social housing are also most likely to be living in cold, leaky and poorly insulated homes. 50% of Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) tenancies (which are private rental tenancies but for people those would otherwise be eligible for social housing) are in homes with a BER rating of a D, E, F or G rating. People receiving HAP are living in accommodation with the lowest energy efficiency ratings on average.

In Dublin, the average standardised monthly rent is now €2,102, double what it was a decade ago. As more and more potential first-time buyers are locked out of the housing market, they are pushed towards living in rental accommodation, where tenants have no control over renovating, insulating or upgrading the heating installations. Tenants in the private rental sector lack the agency to make energy efficiency upgrades, such as installing insulation or heat pumps, as these decisions are controlled by the landlord.

Current measures like expanding retrofit funding and establishing energy advice services are steps in the right direction, however they largely benefit homeowners. Renters, on the other hand, remain locked out of most schemes due to barriers such as lack of landlord incentives and fear of rent hikes or eviction due to renovations. This is despite renters constituting a significant portion of our population, with approximately one-in-five households in Ireland in the private rental sector. 

Current retrofitting policies also require households to pay significant upfront costs, which risk creating a two-tier energy system, whereby wealthier households can enjoy the benefits of warm homes and lower energy bills, and those without the means remain in inefficient housing, locked into fossil fuel reliance and the volatile energy costs that come with it.

Landlords have little incentive to retrofit the homes they are letting as they will have to incur the cost while not receiving the direct benefits. Yet, without the right incentives for landlords, it is the tenants who are left living in colder, damp accommodation while paying the high energy bills.

We can no longer leave thousands of tenants footing extortionate bills to heat damp, energy-leaking homes—while landlords face no obligation, and limited guidance, to invest in essential energy upgrades. 

Any solution towards renovating the rental sector must ensure that strong protections are in place to shield tenants from the higher housing costs that may follow renovations. We’re specifically calling for:

• Strong tenant protections against rent hikes and evictions when renovations take place, and introducing tailored supports to ensure landlords can upgrade homes with tenants in-situ.
• A clear implementation timeline for minimum BERs, and a plan for effective enforcement of new regulations.

We can take a leaf out of what other countries have done in this area. In France, property owners of G- and F-energy rated buildings are banned from increasing the rent between two lettings without undertaking energy renovations since 2023. This ensures that tenants are not left paying higher rents and higher energy bills.

As of now, no such rental ceilings exist in Ireland to protect tenants who live in energy-poor accommodation from rising energy costs and rents.

Note:*A BER rates your home's energy performance on a scale between A and G, with A-rated homes being the most energy efficient.