A major property industry supplier claims that the housing sector could meet government targets to improve the Energy Performance Certificate ratings for homes.
Landmark Information Group says that out of the properties that have a valid EPC, some 55 per cent currently fall below the target of band C, and if all suggested changes recorded in the EPC were made to properties – switching to low-energy light bulbs, adding wall insulation, installing double-glazed windows, and switching to condensing boilers – 91.5 per cent of them could meet the target of band C or better.
However, Landmark concedes that whilst the analysis of EPC data suggests it would be possible, there are other factors to consider including planning constraints, conservation areas and budgets, which means it would be challenging for the sector to achieve.
The findings of a report by the supplier show that the cost of improving ratings varies depending on the current rating of each property. The average cost of £39,381 to uplift an extremely inefficient property from band G to band C equates to nearly 11 per cent of the average current value of a property.
Through the requirement of valid EPCs when properties change hands, property sales can help to drive change. However, given that approximately 1.1m transactions took place in 2022, and assuming sales continue at the same annual rate, it would take 18 years to retrofit the estimated 20 million properties with an EPC rating below band C.
A Landmark spokesperson says: "In the quest for a more energy-efficient future, the path is marked with challenges. While 91.5 per cent of properties show potential to reach higher EPC ratings, the real question remains ‘how?’.
“With a significant percentage of homes lacking EPCs and a daunting task of upgrading millions from low bands to C, doubts linger on the industry's capacity to meet government targets. The hope for a sudden surge of change raises questions of sustainability, while the confidence in legislative timelines and the finite nature of the retrofit market pose substantial hurdles.
“Bridging the gap between potential and reality demands not just ambition but a strategic and sustained effort, as the clock ticks towards an uncertain 2035 deadline."
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I, together with every domestic & commercial landlord that we do business with, are now very pleased with the accuracy of the UK's EPC national measurement system. When you engage a professional energy assessor and provide them with background information on the property the EPC Grade is spot on. EPCs and the Minimum Energy Efficiency Standard have helped thousands of landlords improve the quality of their rental units - getting tenants out of fuel poverty and reducing CO2 pollution. It's common sense. The domestic EPC has always measured both running cost AND CO2 emissions; there are TWO EPC Grades on the certificate.
It only seems to be the 'British Leyland' landlords who moan about the positive progress being made to eliminate energy waste.
Look everyone, Gibbo is back!
What is the point of achieving an EPC C when the algorithm does not actually measure what it is supposed to! If the Govt manages to come up with a sensible measure in its revamp of EPCs then & only then, should we be looking at getting that target.
In the meantime decent LLs continue to improve their properties using their own common sense!
Come on Tricia. Your comments are usually spot on but you can't use Government and Sensible in the same sentence
Thanks Richard - the sentence did start with 'If'!!
The recommendations to acheive a C rating in my D rated fully insulated and double glazed property would cost approx £30,000 for an annual energy saving of £100 PA. This included removing a solid wood block floor which would be irreplaceable today, to install underfloor insulation. Did I do it? No I sold it.
Same for me. I'd rather reduce the rent by a couple of hundred a year instead of getting someone in to do the work. As it's doubtful that would be acceptable eventually, I've decided to sell instead.
That was a good idea to sell William in the circumstances.
The expenditure needed to achieve this rating bears no relation to the ensuing benefit for the tenant.
I’m sure everything can achieve A rating. If you’re prepared to spend 100k on it to save a tenner a year for your tenants. New year, but same old drum to beat and same old lunatics running the asylum.
Excatly Adrian I am sure nearly all properties can with the right time and money, and thats the usual elephant in the room that noone addresses, who is going to pay for it, when many landlords will see no real benefit and quite a lot of the works would require a void period on top.
The net zero save the planet argument, whilst important of course doesnt wash either, it easier just to sell up and get someone else to pay for the required renovations or not. On the basis most landlords are not going to fork out £20/30/40k to get to a C+ anytime soon, the alternative government is simply going to have to accept is that these improvements will simply have to happen over a much longer period of time as properties change hands several times and end users make changes. Net 2100 is a far more realistic ambition if noone is going to plant a magic money tree in the garden of each property, and any EER C deadline is going to have to be kicked long down the road as well unless government wants to pour petrol on the housing crisis and have 2 million rented properies out of circulation overnight.
Same old nonsense I see being peddled 🤷♂️ I was looking forward to Santa 🎅🏻 giving them all a present on Christmas 🎄 Day…… Common Sense 🤔
And in the words of Gino D'Acampo "If my Grandmother had wheels she would have been a bike..."
Any property can get to a Grade C, the question is at what cost?? Spending £50k on a Burnley Terrace worth £70k is plain insanity to everyone except these people. The goal posts are arbitrary with many examples of identical flats receiving vastly different scores, and how long before the Grading changes again? The whole system is an ineffectual mess, that provides no benefit to anyone, resulting in rising rents and lower levels of availability.
The problem is also the life expectancy of these 'improvements'. The cost of solar panels vs how long they are actually efficient for means that £50k isn't the end of it and those panels will need replacing in 20 ish years. They also require rare earth minerals, for example, which is extremely destructive to the Earth to mine, and there are no suitable recycling methods for old panels yet that can recover enough of the original materials to use again...meaning more for landfill.
I approve of a greener future but the technology is still in its infancy and we are bearing the brunt of the stupidity.
John, there's a small upgrade to the EPC calcs in April which will score electrical components more favourably. The big change isn't until probably 2027, which will include things like weather.
Why is this only aimed landlords when that is only a small amount of the country's housing? The only way to make a difference is to apply it to all residential properties.
Too many votes at risk then!
The trouble is that nearly all listed properties would not be able to comply, including all the royal residences.
However, they would no doubt be made compliant with the use of taxpayers money.
When I bought my house in 2012 (to live in), it was rated a C. It already had good quality glazed windows, insulation etc. Recommended upgrades totalled more than £50k for improvements that would have required massive rebuilding of the property, but the certificate stated it would only take the rating up a few points to a slightly higher C.
Roll on to last year and needing to renew the EPC, as I now rent it out and the original one had expired. Still rated a C - higher this time, because I'd replaced the boiler whilst I'd lived there - and a completely different set of recommendations to raise the rating - again, well over £50k to achieve but still only elevating the potential rating to a slighter higher C.
So I compared the individual ratings that make up the C rating I'd achieved. Some had gone up from the original ratings, some had gone down. But nothing on the property had changed except the boiler. Proving, as others have often said, the EPC isn't an accurate rating, but this time it worked in my favour, at least...
Gosh!
Is Gibbons wrong then?
My late parents built a porch on the front of their house. At the rear was an open porch to which they added a door. The identical house next door had neither and complained that their house was always warmer. The EPC was marked down because, "enclosing the spaces means they are part of the house and do not have insulated ceilings". So if I took the doors off and let the cold air in, I would have had a higher rating. The lunatics have truly taken over the asylum.
You could take the roof off the house and let even more cold air in, thus presumably achieving EPC perfection?
Lindsey, the point was that, by creating airlocks front and rear, the two small areas were, in his eyes, part of the main building therefore dragging down the whole rating. Unfortunately the assessor had no commonsense.
No doubt Gibbo will soon weigh in on this.
i do the same build a porch front and rear, makes the house warmer
It's all in the first line.....
A major property industry supplier claims that the housing sector could meet government targets to improve the Energy Performance Certificate ratings for homes.
They want your money.
Sure, anything is possible, but who is going to pay for it?
I've basically have always done what I can realistically do when I buy a new house. Upgrade loft insulation, TRV's Room thermostats, often a new boiler.
After paying the government an extra 3% stamp duty, I'm not coughing up another 10-20K to fit floor insulation or solar panels to save the tenant £100 a year, no thanks, I'd rather just sell them.
John Chart enquires of all:
What % of prospective tenants competing for a property to rent give a hoot
about the EPC rating?
Well the PM and Labour would love the answer:
*** NET ZERO ***
There's a lot of talk of £50k to meet the EPC rating . Most houses have double glazing and loft installation. Condensing boilers are often in place where does this £50k come from? Are we not living on the hyperbole just like the Govt?
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