Tenants in poorly insulated homes may get significant rent reduction

Tenants who live in poorly insulated homes could get a substantial rent reduction. A majority in the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of the Dutch parliament, supported a proposal by PvdA and GroenLinks to allow these tenants to force the landlord to give them a discount if their home has an energy label lower than D.

The Kamer will also likely support a call from the same parties to give the proposed price cap for gas and electricity a more “generous” shape, so larger families in older homes also benefit from it. The Cabinet must also take families into account who have already made their homes more sustainable with, for example, a heat pump and who therefore consume a relatively large amount of electricity.

On Budget Day, the Cabinet announced the price cap, intended to give households and small businesses with modest energy consumption an affordable energy bill. The involved Ministers are still working out the details like the maximum consumption and which the capped rates will apply.

The government is also working on additional energy bill support for SMEs that use a lot of energy, like greenhouse growers and bakeries. The Kamer wants the Cabinet to extend this extra support to schools and cultural institutions.

The Kamer also demanded that compensation for energy companies be “as efficient as possible.” Companies must not make more profits thanks to government subsidies, the MPs said.