Home owners who fail to take steps to introduce green measures to their properties could be facing extra council tax and stamp duty charges, a report on Telegraph.co.uk has revealed.
The financial penalties could affect millions of homes all over the UK that are not energy efficient. There could be serious repercussions for families who will have difficulty selling their homes unless they are prepared to fork out for expensive double glazing and property insulation.
Many sceptics among politicians and housing experts regard the new proposals as just another stealth tax on the guise of being an environmentally friendly initiative.
Shadow housing minister Grant Shapps said: ?The Government seems intent on giving green taxes a bad name. Rather than penalising families who happen to live in homes which are harder to insulate they should introduce genuine help for people to reduce the carbon footprint of their property.?
The minister added that what is really needed is to come up with genuine innovative measures to make Britain?s homes more energy efficient and environmentally friendly. It is not the answer to penalise financially strapped families in the interest of improving home energy efficiency.
Since last October an energy performance certificate has been compulsory for all homes put up for sale or to be rented. This certificate rates the energy efficiency of a property within an A to G ranking.
It has been said that Government thinking is that from 2015 it should become illegal to put up a home for sale with an energy efficient rating of less than band E.
