MPs from a range of opposition parties are pressing the government to reinstate the stricter energy efficiency rules for landlords, recently reversed by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
Last month Sunak scrapped plans aimed at forcing landlords to upgrade the energy efficiency of their properties. Although it had not officially become law, for years landlords have feared proposals to compel them to upgrade their rental properties to achieve an EPC rating of C or above by 2028, and in some cases earlier.
Now in a Commons debate many MPs have called for a reversal of that.
Labour’s Cat Smith - a shadow cabinet minister under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, but now just a backbencher - said: “When I meet families who are renting from private landlords … I hear that their energy bills are far higher because of their doors and windows and how their roofs are leaky and not insulated. That rowing back on the standard in the private rented sector is costing families more.”
Green Party MP Caroline Lucas said in the same debate: “We have heard from the Climate Change Committee that the changes when it comes to landlords and efficiency standards in homes will cost renters an extra £300 a year. The Office for Budget Responsibility is clear that, as a result of the changes that are going to be made, our dependence on gas will cost us more. If the Government really cared about hard-working families, they would not be handing Equinor £3 billion to develop the climate-wrecking Rosebank oilfield; they would be admitting that what the Secretary of State is doing is ripping up the climate consensus for short-term electoral calculation and populist right-wing propaganda.”
And Liberal Democrat MP Wera Hobhouse added: “It is unforgivable that the Government have cancelled the obligation for landlords to upgrade homes to an EPC grade C rating by 2028 at the latest. A comprehensive home insulation scheme would reduce bills and carbon emissions this winter. I am going to make a proposal that might sound quite attractive to Conservative ears, because it is about incentivising and tax breaks. Will the Secretary of State consider allowing landlords to offset spending on insulation against their income tax bills? That would benefit tenants by enabling them to live in warm and comfortable homes.”
However, the Energy Security and Net Zero Secretary Claire Coutinho rejected the various suggestions saying her government did not pursue the policy of making landlords upgrade properties because it could have cost up to £15,000 per unit.
“Asking families up and down the country to spend £10,000 on updating homes would have been passed on in rents and may have led to more shortages in the private rented sector” she added.
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1 of my tenants were very happy to hear that Sunak had canceled plans for the EPC C as I've been asking her for months to find a new house as the property is metal framed and it would cost too much to upgrade and I wanted to sell it. I've already done all that I can afford to do to upgrade it, but spending 14+ thousand of pounds to upgrade a house that is worth 100k is just not worth it for me, so my best option is to sell it.
I don't want to have to evict her, she loves the house and does not want to leave, I've offered to sell it to her but she is not in a position to buy the house,
End of the day, if the government bring in EPC C, I will have no option to sell the house, tenant willl have to go as no other landlord will but it.
Extra 300 a month for tenant or 14k in upgrades? I'm throwing all of my money into high interest accounts at the moment until I dare invest into bonds and other high interest savings accounts.
Would be interested to know what other people are doing. For me, buying any more rentals are out of the question at the moment
High interest accounts for me - upto 6% for a year & 5% instant access, with interest rates remaining high for years.
I understand that and cannot is agree however what needs to be clearly pointed out is that higher rents would be more than offset by savings made by a tenant on energy bills over time. Calculations as to the number of years it would take for a tenant to save would need to be made based on energy price and rent forecasts. The landlord tenants benefit argument put aside, reducing carbon must also be the priority surely as opposed to personal financial gains.
Small thing and I’m sure it’s just a typo, but it was £300 a year not a month, which makes your point even stronger 👍🏻
I demand their expenses claims are scrutinised thoroughly
More proof that politicians really don't live in the real world
Not all of us have taxpayer funded homes or expense claimed lifestyles
Parasites the lot of them
For many Renter’s buying is not an option, if they buy they will have to give up their Benefit’s and free housing, therefore no income, even if you give them one it doesn’t work you’ll still have to keep them.
Knew of a couple in Middlesborough who bought their house under RTB never worked a day. They were surprised that they were allowed to do this because they were on benefits but were advised to go ahead and they did. The UK the land of milk and honey where the state will pay for you to own house and not lift a finger to do it.
Stephen, They may well be in trouble after 5 years when the loan needs repaying!
@Tricia - Right To Buy, not Help To Buy. I also know a couple (who lived in separate council accommodation as they were unmarried at the time). They bought one of the flats under RTB and she was on benefits.
I have sold my rentals now , only one remaining.
I was going to go back to Scotland and buy a couple of holiday lets but been legally advised not to as that market is now in a mess with new planning and licensing rules.
What the hell do we invest in now if this is our livelihood?
When my last rental tenant moves out , I m outa here !
They don’t want landlords just corporate landlord control.
Index funds such as Vanguard are the only other investment I would make.
I tried Vanguard Staurt all that investment done for me was to lose money
I have the Vanguard S&P 500 tracker. It's not done too well this year as it was a bad year. But it's in a SIPP so I get the tax credit which make a big difference.
Warren Buffett advises people to buy into that. He's told his family to do it when he's gone. It' tax free too. So I put some of my spare cash there instead of saving for more deposits.
For any stock market investment you need a 5 year horizon. Now is probably a good time to invest but the last 2 years have been awful!. There will be another bull market & then we should see good returns. Drip feed into the stock market to benefit from dips & use high interest accounts for anything else.
Has anyone looked into buying a hotel room? Some years ago I saw an advert about this. It is completely hands off.
John,
I heard about it. Didn't look further. Sounds complicated like owning a timeshare. One day you will have to find someone who wants to buy a bedroom in a hotel off of you. By then Labour may have sequestrated all hotels to house all of their dingy people and homeless families after the RRB has been bought in. Too risky.
Andrew, I have a financial advisor that manages to lose me money at an alarming rate, from my pension.
I have decided that I am getting too old to be able to suffer the peaks and troughs of investing, as the time limits to recover from a downturn are too long.
As soon as my pension recovers, I'm getting it out.
Do these MPs want this to include social landlords? The article only refers to 'landlords'.
No way, if they included those it would cost the councils billions 💰💰
If I were to advertise DSS welcome maybe I would quallify as a social landlord ?
What is this obsession about Private landlords and moron MP’s it’s not just their Energy Bills that has shot up but every householder in the Land and if Private Home owners the majority don’t have to comply and observe the same rules what’s the point of even considering the Scheme.
Agree. If you are imposing EPC targets to help the environment then it should be on all properties, not just the easy picking Landlords.
Thick as bricks. No wonder the UK is in such a state.
The Regulation’s and Licensing Scheme’s are driving up Carbon foot print.
It costs the same amount to heat a house say Terraced or Semi whether it’s occupied and owner by a small family or not.
Rented houses with say 6 Sharers, it won’t cost any more to heat the property so per head causing less carbon.
However HMO licensing Schemes sometimes restricts the number of occupants which automatically increases carbon foot print.
Bills have increased because energy prices have doubled due to the war in Ukraine & now the Middle East & failures of our Govt to secure energy supplies not because houses have suddenly become leakier!
Having said that, I would support a move to EPC D - with a better algorithm - as everyone should be trying to do what they can to make properties cheaper to heat. EPC C was always too far, too soon.
I have an E grade property. I bought it in 2015. I was always prepared for it to move to a D in say 10-20 years but not a C. It's madness.
I totally agree Tricia, the current EPC algorithm doesn't work for UK housing, which has been agreed with my EPC assessor. It needs vastly improving before we can start linking it to big improvement expenditure. I also feel that a D grade would be much more realistic for older solid walled property. Let's hope someone sees sense eventually!
Agree a D would be sensible, but C 🆘🆘
I believe Labour will being this back in ☠️ Then my plans to sell my older properties are back on…. Along with the requisite evictions 🆘🆘
Yes and rent controls.
I have no doubt that Labour are on their way to winning the next election and that the minimum requirement EPC will revert back to C.
Matthew 23:4 - in relation to the burdens placed on landlords by politicians and local councils. The easy to read version of the bible is particularly appropriate:
"They make strict rules that are hard for people to obey. They try to force others to obey all their rules. But they themselves will not try to follow any of those rules."
Lost in all the reterick was a very sensible suggestion from Wera Hobhouse. Or make energy efficiency measures VAT free. Sadly it won't make my one EPC D property economic to upgrade but it might help to incentivise some. It would also help home owners who struggle with the same high energy bills.
If they came up with a practical way to insulate victoriana terraces that didn't cause damp issues or ruin their external appearance it might be more feasible. Mine were designed to "breathe" and I've conscientiously always used expensive lime plaster to support this. The properties are insulated by the one next door. None of my tenants has ever complained about the heating bills.
Likewise
What about your social homes aren't most of them cold and expensive to heat as well Ms Smith ?
A lot of them are riddled with damp and if we, as private landlords were to rent out properties in this condition, we would no doubt suffer sanctions and possible prosecution.
EPC isn't a reliable measure of heating costs.
One of my EPC C houses with 3 tenants uses less gas then my EPC A house which 2 of us live in.
A different EPC C house with 5 tenants uses more gas than my EPC E house with 6 tenants.
There are so many factors other than insulation which affects energy consumption. The main two are orientation of the house and occupier attitude.
They are so concerned about rental property EPCs but, I wonder how many of them will turn up for today's discussion (requested by Andrew Bridgen MP) concerning the massive increase in UK excess deaths - by far a more important topic!
They will have to live with their conscience , if they have any ]
Seems most of them have a price
Bl **** MP’s just saying things to get tenants on their side. And all the nanny panbys. Like G E. They are clueless.
It's all going nanny panby now. Just Stop Oil blocking a coach getting to Bibby Stockholm. There's no oil - nothing to do with them. Trans nonsense. Excuses galore to strike, not work or claim more benefits.
MPs & all the Marxist pressure groups can bang on as much as they like, my Victorian terraced houses still don’t make band C with new double glazing & new (gas fired- shock horror) boilers. My Derbyshire tenants are struggling financially & I’ve not increased their rents for 5 years. We are not Social Services despite being treated as such by ignorant politicians who are now gleefully sacrificing the less well off on the altar of Net Zero & persecuting into submission the only people who can save them. Mass Homelessness is a perfect storm & the disaster is about to erupt
Some PRS - LLs are currently facing challenges related to low energy performance certificates (EPC) ratings, specifically ratings of E and D.
Failure to comply with the regulations by 2025 could result in a significant increase in fines, from £5,000 to £30,000. The costs associated with improving the energy efficiency of properties, moving them from E to D and D to C, range from £4,000 to £14,000 per band.
Despite the pressing need for compliance, LLs are also grappling with other issues such as high interest rates and delays in obtaining possession orders for Section 21 and Section 8, while the unpopular Renter's Reform Bill looms, awaiting implementation.
It appears that the government may have to consider exploring alternative solutions, such as repurposing abandoned airports or airfields, to establish emergency refugee camps for the homeless population, as the changes in the PRS are perceived to have had a detrimental impact. It is a challenging time, and the future of the PRS remains uncertain. RIP 🙏⚰
EPC requirements have currently gone away.
Or maybe the UK government shouldn't sanction themselves by 'sanctioning' Russia and kept buying cheap gas. Or maybe these MPs are working for the housing associations and want to ruin the small businesses? Which is very usual picture nowadays in most capitalist countries. There are a lot of 'maybe's but all this pressure over both - short lets and long term lettings is not about the wellbeing of renters ...
Has Gov done any form of risk assessment into how many PRS tenants will be made homeless (temp or permanent) due to their EPC demands?
Are tenants aware short-sighted politicians are playing russian roulette with their rental homes.
Should councils and gov be looking at buying barges to house the tenants made homeless due to their legislation.
Are home owners aware once Gov have targeted and destroyed most of the PRS, the politicians have no choice but to come for home owners next - net zero is a commitment so they will have to target home owners as well or net zero won't work.
ITV attacking Landlords again to night, They are at it every News time I turn it on its ridiculous, I thought they were supposed to be an Independent TV Channel but obviously not. Also blaming Landlords for mould at damp when it’s clearly caused by their Condensation, their life style and no attempt to deal with it.
When Traditional landlords are forced out, good who will they complain about then with their loud speakers, let them go to work save money and buy their own, they won’t be half as smart or have all this time for protesting, they be at home washing off the mould which is where they should be today.
Perfectly put, Michael!
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