RENT campaigners have urged the government to stop taxpayer-funded insulation grants from lining landlords’ pockets by limiting rent increases after energy efficiency upgrades.

The Renters’ Rights Bill will return to the House of Lords on Wednesday for its report stage.

An amendment tabled by Baroness Jenny Jones and backed by Generation Rent sought to prevent landlords from hiking rents after receiving public funds to improve a property’s energy efficiency.

Campaigners say this would help landlords meet energy standards while ensuring tenants benefit from lower bills — rather than face rent hikes that cancel out the savings.

Polling shows nearly four million private renters regularly struggle to pay energy bills, while 3.6 million live with damp or mould.

Under the new Warm Homes Local Grant scheme, landlords must declare they “understand rent should not be increased” due to upgrades, but there is no mechanism to enforce it.

Baroness Jones’s amendment would empower tribunals to treat publicly funded upgrades as tenant-led improvements, making them ineligible grounds for rent increases, campaigners said.

Parissa Zand of Generation Rent said: “Everyone needs a good quality, affordable home. It’s the foundation of our lives.

“But millions of renters are living in cold homes with shocking levels of mould and damp, while we regularly struggle to pay our energy bills.

“These issues ripple across our lives, impacting our mental and physical health and forcing us to make really difficult decisions like having to go without food or go into debt to pay our bills.”

Ms Zand said landlord groups are warning they will increase rents in response to government reforms, adding: “The danger is that public money could be used to enrich landlords rather than benefit tenants.

“We are already seeing cases where landlords have evicted tenants who rely on benefits after publicly funded energy efficiency upgrades, so they could get a better price for their property.

“Without protections, landlords could easily raise the rent to effectively cancel out their tenants’ energy bill savings.”

Claire, a renter in her 50s who lives in a very cold, mouldy home in East Sussex and claims Universal Credit and PIP, said: “My home is freezing. I’m always in debt with my gas and electricity bills, but my landlord still looks to take any opportunity to hike my rent.

“I would take any promise they make not to raise the rent with a massive pinch of salt.”