Over recent months, news of a proposed tightening of EPC rules in 2025 for lettings has caused many landlords concern, and that's not surprising. Out for consultation is a proposal to require any property that is let to have an EPC rating no lower than a C. Given that getting some of the country's older building stock to achieve the current stipulation of an E rating required significant remedial work, this poses a considerable problem.
The average property in England and Wales scores a D rating, and most Edwardian and Victorian properties only just achieve this, provided they have efficient condensing gas boilers as the source of heating.
There is also a lot of talk about heat pumps being the natural replacement for a gas boiler. This technology, while not new, hasn't had widespread use in this country for heating homes with a wet radiator system. It is currently very expensive to install, there are no available grants at the moment, and there are still question marks over the efficiency and effectiveness of these systems for domestic use in the UK.
Furthermore, as the current direction seems to be trending away from natural gas and towards electricity, homeowners would be forgiven for thinking that electricity as a source to heat your home will score well. Unfortunately, as things currently stand with EPCs, this is not the case. Confusingly, domestic EPCs are actually geared towards unit cost of fuel rather than CO2 output, and as electricity is more expensive than gas, the EPC rating will be low.
So, what should you do now?
Firstly you should bear in mind that the "C rating by 2025" is by no means set in stone. The proposed bill is in doubt after the tragic murder of MP David Amess. He was the bill's main sponsor and so far no one else has sponsored it. In any case, these bills are, apparently, more likely used to draw attention to a particular issue than to actually become law. 86% of homes in the UK currently use gas as a source of heating(1) and to replace this within the space of a few years would be a monumental task. It is very likely that 2025 will be deemed too soon. Even the government's previous energy white paper setting the target at 2030 is still a tall order.
Secondly, ask yourself: What you have already done to your property? Have you undertaken energy saving measures to date? Currently there is a ‘high cost’ exemption(2) if you can demonstrate that to take your property to an E rating would cost more than £3500. It is very likely that this exemption will remain in place in some form if the requirement rises to 'C'.
Thirdly, seek advice. There might be things you can change about your property that are not listed on the 'Recommended Measures' section of your EPC report. At Pixangle we offer a 'MEES' (Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards) service where we analyse ALL of the measures available to achieve a certain rating, and produce a report detailing your options.
It is clear that the direction of travel is towards creating a more energy efficient housing stock, and rightly so. Homes are estimated to account for 22% of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions. The UK has set in law a target to bring its greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050. But the way in which it is done needs to be realistic, affordable and achievable.
1 https://www.statista.com/statistics/289137/central-heating-in-households-in-the-uk/