The National Residential Landlords Association is warning that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s scrapping of revised EPC targets at the end of last week may not be the end of the matter.

The deputy policy director Meera Chindooroy says in a blog on the NRLA website that Sunak’s move is a welcome indication that he has listed to the association’s plea to drop the one-size-fits all approach to finance for undertaking energy efficiency improvements, and to suggest a more realistic timescale. 

“The Government has clearly been listening to us” she writes.

But she says the issue is, to some extent, still unresolved and writes: “ The reality is that we are now in the run up to a general election. The Prime Minister evidently believes he will remain in power, but there is a very real possibility that we will have a Labour-led government in a year or so. 

“The Labour Party has yet to respond in full to Rishi Sunak’s announcement, but Ed Miliband, the shadow secretary for climate change, has already said he is ‘in favour’ of requiring rented properties to meet a minimum EPC C rating. “

Chindooroy urges landlords to take full advantage of the more generous boiler update grant and to accept that in general, the more energy efficiency a rental property the better it is for all concerned.

She concludes: “In reality this means there is still no clear plan for the sector, something that will only serve to complicate landlords’ investment decisions.  Despite the rhetoric this week, Rishi Sunak doesn’t have the last word on this issue. But it’s not yet clear who will.”

You can read the full piece here.