Housing Secretary Michael Gove has pledged to publish “shortly” revised timetables for the implementation of further energy efficiency targets for the private rental sector.
Gove was asked an explicit question about the issue in a Q&A session in London after a key speech on housebuilding. Gove repeated claims that he made in a newspaper article at the weekend, saying he thought the current timetable for EPC targets for landlords should be relation. “Further details would be published shortly” he said.
The Housing Secretary said in the article that his government was “asking too much too quickly” of landlords, after proposing a deadline of 2028 for new EPC regulations.Landlords will have to ensure their rented properties achieve a minimum EPC rating of C within five years or risked large fines.
Also at the Q&A session Gove made a further unequivocal pledge not to introduce rent controls, saying wherever they had been tried in the past they backfired.
The core of Gove’s comments, and his speech, concerned a renewed emphasis on building new homes - but mainly in cities, not rural areas.
He said: “Most people agree that we need to build more homes – the question is how we go about it. Rather than concreting over the countryside, we have set out a plan today to build the right homes in the right places where there is community support – and we’re putting the resources behind it to help make this vision a reality.
“At the heart of this is making sure that we build beautiful and empower communities to have a say in the development in their area.”
He promised to unblock the bottlenecks in the planning system which he said were “choking and slowing down development, and stopping growth and investment”.
This would involve a £24m Planning Skills Delivery Fund to clear backlogs and get the right skills in place, and setting up a “super-squad” team of leading planners and other experts charged with working across the planning system to unblock major housing developments. The team will first be deployed in Cambridge “to turbocharge our plans in the city” he said.
Developers will also be asked to contribute more through fees, to help support a higher quality more efficient planning service.
New flexibilities to convert shops, takeaways and betting shops into homes will help to rejuvenate the high street. Meanwhile, red tape will be cut to enable barn conversions and the repurposing agricultural buildings and disused warehouses.
New freedoms to extend homes, convert lofts and renovate new buildings will help to convert existing properties into new accommodation, he said, and a review into the extension of Permitted Development Rights “will make it easier for homeowners to build upwards and outwards – with new extensions and loft conversions - whilst ensuring neighbours’ interests are protected.”
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Councils can easily opt out , so yet another load of pointless red tape
A “Super Squad” in Cambridge. This is where those lazy Fs are doing a 4 day week experiment with no loss of pay. Mmmm. Planners already have backlogs and these people don’t even work full time. An MP this week had told them
to stop.
So let me get this right. Gove who was bringing all this in that has forced people to sell up or change their business plans costing profits now changing his mind? I have a name for him but I don't want to get cancelled
That's exactly what sprang to mind with me too!! So.people who have sold up and left the letting industry, based on his "plans" have been lied to and perhaps made the wro g lifestyle choice for themselves..and list a few of the country's rental properties too? What an absolute shower...
Gove is a slippery one 🐍
And when will we see a new algorithm so that we know what the true energy ratings of our properties are?
Be very, very careful what you wish for, Tricia. 15 years ago our Civil Servants chose a 'running cost' calculation for the primary EPC Grade on the 21 million certificates. Absolutely the CORRECT decision and it remains so today. Our tenants don't give a monkeys about the invisible CO2 gas but they do care about if they will be able to afford to heat themselves and their children every single winter. Would you agree with that? If you want a CO2 pollution EPC Grade 'algorithm' it's ALWAYS been included in the £75 survey and certificate - it's under the heading - Impact on the Environment. Not a lot of people know that. So, do your really want the primary EPC Grade to be based on CO2 pollution? If you mean that then all of our modern, gas fired combi boilers will have to scrapped. What you're proposing is madness, Tricia.
This is absolutely right Tricia. It’s been delayed sine 2020 (I think?). Scotland has announced some changes recently and I hope this isn’t a trial for what England will get.
Sadly Tricia I don’t think any algorithm will show that, just inputting numbers into a handheld is just there to tick a box, it’s not real. A few mathematical tweaks and suddenly your properties are inefficient 😂 it’s all smoke and mirrors, and we have all been groomed into believing it.
Martin
A Victorian tenement flat got promoted to C for both measures after installing a new boiler and heating controls, so for my rental flats I would prefer to invest to improve the environment than reduce my tenants' energy costs, especially since you regard tenants as being so socially and environmentally irresponsible. It's a good job most landlords are not as irresponsible as you think tenants are but the illogicality of penalising greener electric heating rightly discourages sensible landlords from taking action they know doesn't make sense environmentally or economically.
Incidentally like many others, in well over 300 tenant change overs I have NEVER been asked for the EPC rating and most tenants were found to be on the expensive standard tariffs instead of shopping around for cheaper fixed tariffs readily available before Theresa! May levelled us all up to the higher standard tariffs.
Martin, EPC C Is being forced on us as part of NetZero. The fact that you may prefer it to measure cost is irrelevant. If the Govt says it is a carbon measure, then it should measure carbon. I have no problem with a cost measure but tell us it is a cost measure & I can remove my electric heating that run on green energy & replace them with gas that increases carbon. The EPC metric we use was designed as part of the Home information Pack & was never designed to be used like this. And I do believe the Govt's point IS to scrap our modern gas fired boilers - do you not read the news? Oh I forgot - you're a Chatbot!
I just read an article stating that the Scottish Government and the Green Party are ready to cripple homeowners and Landlords by banning any property sale that has an EPC C rating or below. Furthermore any property currently on a C rating will be downgraded. I so love the Scottish Communist Party!
Absolute madness. When will the muppets in Westminster start bringing this in?
They are nut cases 🆘🆘 Scotland has huge amounts of Georgian properties 🤐
The SNP and their little Green helpers have had a very successful policy of robbing Peter to pay Paul but are now beginning to harm more and more Pauls and the tide is turning.
Expect lots more Uxbridge type results and the Green communists to be ditched by the SNP as damage limitation.
I can’t see that happening. It would be political suicide.
And NRLA is claiming a “win” on EPCs! Toadying up with a “welcome” statement.
Unbelievable! NRLA’s professional standards are slipping-more in favour of anti landlord policies and laws instead of supporting PRS landlords.
Best wishes to all good landlords.
Gove now backing off 'No new gas boilers after 2035 for LLs'. Funny - I always thought this was for everyone! Anyway, good that the original ban (2016) has now slipped from its slipped date of 2035!
htt ps://ww w. property118. com /have-your-say-in-renters-reform-bill-survey/
Fill this in all, at least we get to have a say. Excuse the spaces as we cannot send links
I've filled it in Peter, but the Government will not listen to anything we say - we all know that now. Everything we do is futile, except perhaps gaining vacant possession and selling everything.
Our votes still count but the challenge is getting decent tenants to realise the harm that faces them when the RRB and EPC C see the light of day and vote accordingly.
Scottish tenants still don't equate the current rental crisis with the SNP legislation since 2017 but hopefully the penny will drop before the next election, with humiliation in a probable Rutherglen bye election the first step towards sanity.
I am delighted.
Gove has just confirmed that the 2030 ban on new petrol and diesel cars will not be delayed, despite forecasts that we will be 100,000 short of the necessary numbers of public chargers vital to allow electric cars to travel throughout the country.
I am delighted because I can totally rely on the outcome of his unwavering commitment and firm promises.
I am now even more confident that I will still be able to buy a highly environmentally friendly thoroughly reliable new diesel 4x4 with unlimited range, after a 5 minute refuel every 500 to 700 miles, well after 2030.
I wish all politicians could be as predictable and reliably consistent as Mr Gove!
Don’t worry this will be pushed back and the UK 🇬🇧 will probably go back to extracting stuff from the ground soon too.
Peter
I hope you're not suggesting that Mr Gove is unreliable?
Robert, the man is about as reliable as cramp..!
It’s accepted that the UK is a 1st world country, but the way things are currently with the NHS, homelessness, the Economy etc, I would say we are no better than a 3rd world country. How times have changed!
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