With landlords under pressure to fund ever-stricter energy efficiency requirements, a new report appears to make the government’s ‘one size fits all’ approach inappropriate for the private rental sector.

The report comes from the Office for National Statistics and it shows that three fifths of assessed homes in England and Wales have low energy efficiency ratings.

The ONS says the age of a property is the most significant factor associated with energy efficiency, ahead of fuel type and property type.

Homes built in 2012 or later in England and Wales are much more likely to have one of the top three energy efficiency ratings than older homes.

Almost all homes built since 2012 in England and Wales have a high energy efficiency rating, compared with just 12 per cent of assessed homes built before 1900 in England, and eight per cent of homes built before 1900 in Wales.

The age of a dwelling affects the energy efficiency as building techniques and regulations have changed over time, alongside wear and tear.

Overall, fewer than half of assessed homes in both England (42 per cent) and Wales (37 per cent) have an Energy Performance Certificate rating of C or higher. 

Propertymark’s policy and campaigns manager Timothy Douglas says: “The UK government must take these findings seriously and understand the huge challenge that many landlords face to upgrade property which introduces a real risk of many exiting the sector. To navigate this, they must provide funding and support based on much broader considerations.”

The ONS says: “Controlling for other factors, the age of a dwelling has the biggest impact on its energy efficiency, with newer homes much more likely than older homes to have an EPC rating of C or above.

“To understand the biggest influences on a home’s energy efficiency, we have used a logistic regression model to assess the impact of different characteristics in isolation (or controlling for other variables). The data used in this analysis only covers homes for which an EPC exists, and therefore doesn’t reflect the entire housing stock.

“Newer homes are the most likely to be energy efficient. Almost all dwellings in England and Wales built since 2012 have an EPC rating of C or above, and as such the odds of a house of this age having a high rating are extremely high compared with houses built earlier.

“Homes built before 1900 were the least likely to have a high efficiency rating.”