Landlords could go to prison if they don’t meet new energy rules
The British government is considering imposing prison sentences on landlords and property owners who do not comply with stringent new energy efficiency regulations – a move that has infuriated some MPs
In a bid to meet its net-zero targets, ministers want the authority to establish fresh criminal offences and escalate civil penalties.
Under the proposed rules, anyone who doesn’t comply with energy consumption regulations could potentially face up to one year in prison and fines of up to £15,000.
That means a landlord who doesn’t fit a heat pump to a property to meet tighter energy rules could, potentially, be facing a prison sentence.
However, Tory backbenchers have expressed concerns over the plans which passed their third reading this week, fearing that they might lead to the criminalisation of homeowners, landlords and businesses.
Proposals are part of the government’s Energy Bill
These contentious proposals are part of the government’s Energy Bill, and it includes provisions for ‘the creation of criminal offences’ for those who fail to comply with energy performance regulations.
A property owner could also face prosecution for providing false information about energy efficiency or obstructing enforcement authorities.
The Energy Bill will replace and strengthen regulations for Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs), which were previously based on now-repealed EU law.
EPCs are mandatory whenever a property is sold or rented out.
However, the Energy Bill makes clear that inspectors will have the powers to order a landlord or homeowner to carry out improvements and stop the property from being sold until the improvement work is carried out.
Those improvements could include the fitting of heat pumps, double glazing, loft insulation and smart appliances.
Government officials argue that these expanded powers are necessary to amend existing criminal offences within the current regulatory framework.
Ministers are giving themselves the authority to revamp and enforce the system, with consultations to determine the specific changes still to come.
But that creation of power has created alarm among Tory MPs who fear handing Ministers the ability to create a new offence with little Parliamentary scrutiny.
Craig Mackinlay leads the Net Zero Scrutiny Group, and he has tabled an amendment to remove the ‘open-ended and limitless’ powers from the legislation.
He told The Telegraph:
“The Bill is festooned with new criminal offences. This is just unholy, frankly, that you could be creating criminal offences.
The ones we’ve found most offensive are where a business owner could face a year in prison for not having the right energy performance certificate or type of building certification.”
Use of statutory instruments to create new offences
Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, a former energy secretary, told the newspaper that the proposed use of statutory instruments to create new offences was unacceptable.
He said:
“Criminal offences are an exceptional use of the state’s power and therefore require the fullest constitutional scrutiny.
The whole Bill is about piling costs onto consumers. It’s as if Uxbridge and the vote against Ulez had never taken place.”
MPs fear that the new statutory powers for Ministers might simply be ‘nodded through’ without Commons approval.
A government spokesman told The Telegraph:
“We have no plans to create new criminal offences, and any suggestion otherwise is untrue.
Energy certificate legislation originated in EU laws, and our amendments ensure landlords, businesses and tenants are provided with the information they need to make their own decisions on energy efficiency in their buildings.”
The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero declined to comment.
See more here property118.com
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Wisenox
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Prison for not enslaving/oppressing their own people; every landlord that goes along with it instantly becomes an enemy combatant to the people. It is a passive act of a war that is being waged on ordinary people around the world. The people aren’t aware, because they don’t see it.
People are sheep, blinded by the shiny things, which are nothing but scripted theatrics. The fake war in the Ukraine is the perfect example. The people have never been shown an actual war, just the impression of one. Their brains fill in the missing pieces and they focus on the fake war itself, instead of the reasons they are lying about the war in the first place.
The people are in a war they don’t know about, but each passing day more of them begin to see the patterns of deceit and are starting to look. The smart ones will see that all of the events are mirror image scripts of events in the past. The smart ones will see the underlying theme from history:
Plant the seed, grow it green, cut it down, harvest it and replant the seed somewhere else.
That’s the business model, apply some symbology and social engineering in the m8x and you get the last 5000 years. It began with the enuma elis.
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Anapat
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Yeah, just send the owner of Buckingham Palace to jail.
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Kevin Doyle
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I was under the mistaken impression citizens of the United Kingdom had freedoms. Freedoms including: What home to live in, how to heat your home, and what form of transportation you might like.
Unfortunately, I was quite wrong.
His Majesty’s ‘subjects’ have fewer rights now than they had at the signing of Magna Carta in 1215 A.D.
The veterans of Britain’s armed forces must be rolling over in their graves, as they foolishly fought two world wars to fight totalitarianism.
Instead, of submitting to German Socialists, the people of the land of Winston Churchill have voted to enslave themselves to British Socialists…
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ChoppedDog
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Close.
The British Volken did instead submit themselves to the Soviet Bolshevik and to those Satanist behind them. All else being smoke and Mirrors.
Indeed, no one ever asked why the People of Europe/Uk also voted themselves back into a Soviet Socialist Paradise following WW2…something similar having been Warned against since 1939…or so, with the attendant destruction and murder of many Millions.
All at the behest of a hidden hand. Not so well hidden since the debacle of these last 4 years.
A Massive Global Pogrom awaits the Loonie Toon Mass Murderers and their useful idiots.
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