Currently private rented accommodation needs to be Energy Performance Certificate Band ‘E’ or better, unless any improvements to make the property compliant cost more than £3,500. A higher standard has been on the cards for many years but the idea was dropped by the last government following lobbying from private landlords. There is a general ‘agency problem’ – private landlords don’t pay the energy bills of often fuel-poor tenants living in energy inefficient accommodation and have no incentives to do so.
It looks as though the new government is going to revive the proposal and may be requiring a minimum of EPC C by 2030.
B&NES is at the forefront of local councils in requiring newly licenses HMOs achieve EPC C (it has no control over non-HMOs). This requirement came in with the last Local Plan in January 2023 and has been going reasonably well with most landlords being compliant. However:
- A few landlords have raised objections – why should they spend money on making homes more energy efficient
- There has been a recent spate of properties submitting new Energy Performance Certificates meeting the EPC C standard but whose previous EPC ratings were D or E but with no apparent new insulation measures being installed between the 2 certificates; we suspect the new EPCs are being overly generously assessed, and have asked the council planning and sustainability departments about this several times without a response. We are concerned and feel this may be a precursor landlords’ approaches to MEES – get generous EPC assessors to provide new certificates