A mortgage lender wants Chancellor Rachel Reeves to use her October Budget to offer support to beleaguered landlords – especially over energy efficiency improvements. 

Skipton Group – which includes the Skipton Building Society as well as the Connells lettings and estate agency brands – says landlords need help to meet Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) ratings of C by 2030.

Skipton’s research reveals a third of landlords are not even fully aware of their existing properties’ EPC ratings with as many as 39% saying they may sell up if they cannot afford improvement costs.

Some 46% of landlords may use savings to find improvements to their buy to let properties.

Hamptons (a lettings agency chain which is part of Skipton Group) recently warned it could take landlords up to 18 years to meet the EPC target.

Skipton says possible government assistance could include making energy improvement costs tax-deductible, or grants and match-funding offered to landlords.

Charlotte Harrison, chief executive of home financing at Skipton Group, says: “Landlords play an integral part in the UK’s housing provision, and we know they face significant challenges in greening their homes from an awareness, cost, and access to appropriate guidance and skills perspective.

“We believe that when it comes to the decarbonisation of our housing stock, the Government needs to consider ways to incentivise and support landlords in forthcoming Budgets to enable them to reach the new proposed target.

“Making the necessary improvements to their properties is critical to helping the country meet its net zero target and, importantly, will help to address some of the challenges that the cost-of-living, energy and climate crises have had on people living in the UK.”

Harrison adds: “To date, there have been more incentives for homeowners and social tenants to green their homes than there have been for landlords, offering an opportunity for this Government to equalise that imbalance.”