There are several schemes available to help landlords with the cost of installing energy efficient measures.
The Landlord Energy Saving Allowance
The LESA was introduced by the Government in 2004 and allows private and corporate landlords who pay income tax to claim back up to £1,500 per property for the installation of energy saving measures, including loft, cavity wall, floor, hot water system and solid wall insulation, as well as draft proofing. The scheme applies per property, rather than per building, so a house converted into four flats would be able to claim up to £6,000. However, the allowance does not cover holiday lets or resident landlords.
To claim the relief, landlords must include the expenditure as a deduction in their self-assessment tax return. For more information, landlords should visit HM Revenue & Customs at www.hmrc.gov.uk.
Warm Front
Grants of up to £2,700 are available to tenants of private landlords if they are in receipt of certain benefits to make insulation and heating improvements to a property. The landlord doesn’t have to make any financial contribution, only give permission to their tenants for the work to be carried out on the property. The tenant must apply for the grant and a Warm Front assessor will visit the property to suggest which improvements should be made. For a full list of the type of tenant eligible for the grant visit www.warmfront.co.uk. This scheme is only available for households in England.
Local council benefits and grants
Local authorities and councils in the UK offer a range of different grants and financial assistance to landlords to help them improve the energy performance of their property, but the level of assistance differs from council to council. To check what grants landlords are entitled to from their local authority, they should call the Energy Efficiency Advice Centre, a service funded by both the Government and the Energy Saving Trust,
on 0800 512 012. |
