Many landlords have dropped plans to improve the energy efficiency of their homes following the U-turn by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
In September 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 a survey by Landbay suggested that fewer landlords plan to make energy efficiency improvements.
Before the EPC minimum requirement was scrapped, some 73 per cent of landlords intended to bring a property up to a C rating. Of these, 39 per cent would have waited until nearer the proposed 2028 deadline and a similar proportion planned to make improvements sooner.
Now, only 62 per cent of those with a lower rated property intend to upgrade to a C rating while it is not a legal requirement. Some 42 per cent of these will make changes at some point in the future and just 20 per cent intend to upgrade as soon as possible. A quarter will only make changes if legislation requires them to in the future, and 13 per cent have abandoned all plans on this front.
Unsurprisingly Landbay found that three-quarters of landlords backed Sunak’s U-turn; a quarter were opposed to the change.
Rob Stanton, business development director at Landbay, says: “We applaud the sentiment around trying to improve the energy efficiency of buildings, but we also need to be realistic. The UK has a vast amount of older housing that is difficult to retrofit and will be expensive. Over half of rental properties in the UK are D rated or lower so landlords now have some breathing space to plan without a looming deadline.”
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Not me. I have always believed it's important to make my homes energy efficient. To save the environment? No. Because good homes mean happy tenants. Happy tenants mean low hassle. It's worked for 40 years so far.
HALT 🛑 they say 🤔🤔 Difficult to halt something I never started 😂😂 Not doing a thing !! If EPC C comes back under Labour, then I sell 💰💰, if it doesn’t…. I sell 💰💰. So why would I bother spending a penny 😂
Until the EPC algorithm is updated it is a meaningless measure. I have done everything sensible - loft insulation, TRVs, programmable thermostats, DG - but I will not be forced into solid floor insulation (disruptive & expensive) or external wall insulation in Victorian properties (expensive & likely to cause damp) I would rather sell them!
Any measure that makes a perfectly decent home unrentable in the middle of a housing crisis is ridiculous. Any measure that puts a restriction on rentals but not on owner occupiers is unfair. Any measure that makes a vast swathe of our rental stock (Victorian & Edwardian terraces) unsuitable for tenants is stupid.
Very good but the same time the housing stock was perfectly acceptable for generations gone before us with only a fraction of the facilities we have now. Like modern bathrooms instead of public Bath’s that I had to use and hire the towel, outside toilets I remember those, not too long ago either when I worked on an Estate in Enfield where the Council paid for them to be built as an add on back addition.
Central heating there was no such thing. How come existing stock is now is now frowned upon despite all the improvements that has been made. I suppose in those days there were real men & women unlike today they don’t know what they are and promoted by main stream television.
I did a shift as a public bath attendant in London in the early 80's, only had a couple of customers.
I never started, the way the government went about it was at best a joke.
Why would I spend 15-20k on ugrading a property to save a tenant 20 quid a year, this tells me there is hardly any improvement required and most of it is a tick box exercise.
Just the usual 'virtue signalling' eco zealot' philosophy of the nut zero fanatics.
I fail to understand why we have to get to zero when other countries are disregarding these limits, especially when we are one of the lowest polluters.
Whatever we do, isn't going to make any difference to the overall position.
Tricia, I'm totally with you on this. Even before the government brought about its stupid idea of EPC C, I've always done the basics, loft insulation, TRV's programmable thermostats, etc.
But there is no way i'm fitting floor or external wall insulation. I'll just sell the ones that cant reasonably make the grade.
No point in spending 3 years income to make a merge saving for tenant. I'll just sell them and get 5.5% interest in the bank.
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