The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors has cast doubt on the UK’s ambitions to move towards Net Zero - which in turn may throw into doubt strict new EPC targets for the private rental sector.
A RICS survey conducted by YouGov shows that while 34 per cent of homeowners say they would invest in green technology to lower bills in the future, 45 per cent say they will focus on using savings to pay for existing living expenses.
This emphasis on the current cost of living crisis shows that more incentives and cheaper options must be made available. RICS suggests this could a mix of stamp duty and VAT reductions on home improvements.
In the institution’s latest survey, some 51 per cent who confirmed they hadn’t already installed new energy saving measures in their homes blamed the high cost of doing so. And of those, 40 per cent say they’d only consider spending £1,000 to £5,000 on energy improvements.
For the private rental sector, retrofitting appears the only answer if landlords are to meet EPC targets of all new tenancies agreed after 2025 having a minimum EPC rating of ‘C’.
Sam Rees, senior public affairs officer at RICS, says: “The retrofitting of millions of UK homes will be essential to helping to meet our net zero ambitions, however homeowners’ immediate concerns are understandably with the rising cost of living, especially their energy bills. It is important to recognise that retrofitting and the cost of living are not mutually exclusive issues.
“A suitably retrofitted, low-carbon home can help with the long-term challenges of the cost of living and reducing high levels of energy consumption. Achieving this however is not cheap. With the UK Government giving financial support to homeowners to support them with rising energy prices, RICS is calling on the government to extend this support and provide additional financial incentives to homeowners to encourage retrofitting and ultimately helping to tackle the cause of high energy usage.
“Before any significant investment is made on retrofit measures, RICS urges homeowners and the government to ensure a retrofit assessment is undertaken on the property first – ensuring that no unintended consequences occur such as overheating or increased energy demand. This is critical to protecting consumers and RICS is undertaking significant research to support such assessments.”
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Do nothing it's a waste of money and a con, if come 2028 I am forced to evict good long term tenants they will be advised as to why I'm having to evict them from their homes
That's my plan. To evict and point the finger at the government. They can be the bad guy for once.
RICS wants more funding 😂 do they know what is about to hit the whole country? 18% inflation, 7% base rates, energy cap of £6,000 per annum….. we are in a right mess. The government is already effectively bankrupt 😱💰💰….. and if Putin does totally cut the supply to Europe …. All bets are off.
PROPOSED target! Nothing has been passed in law yet, in fact the whole EPC C thing has gone pretty quiet recently. A new PM may have different priorities to Bozo.
It would be madness to force LLs to spend vast sums on their properties, which would result in further increases in rent, just at the time when tenants are struggling to afford existing rents. But then when did common sense for the backbone of policy?
The government need to remove the requirement for planning permission for solar panels and other eco improvements on all houses (except grade 1 or 2 listed).
I want to put solar panels and battery storage on 2 of my HMOs which are both modern houses built 18 years ago on an estate that had it's Permitted Development rights removed. Numerous houses on the estate already have solar PV.
10 years ago when I put solar panels on other houses on the same estate there was no charge for planning permission. Now it's about £206 if we submit the application by email or £26 more if we use the planning portal. I submitted my applications 4 weeks ago and have phoned or emailed every few days to try and make payment. Yesterday's excuse was that they are suffering from staff shortages and are too busy to take payment and activate the application.
If we didn't have to apply for planning permission for things that hadn't even been thought about when the PD was removed they wouldn't have quite such a staffing issue.
Net zero
The contents of politicians heads
Taxing people then handing it back to "save money" ? Why not, not tax, and let market forces act.
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