Labour’s EPC targets for landlords could spark ‘frenzy’

Labour’s EPC targets for landlords could spark ‘frenzy’

0:04 AM, 16th January 2025, About An hour ago

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Labour’s energy performance certificate (EPC) targets for landlords will drive Britain’s property market into a ‘frenzy’ and worsen the housing shortage, experts have warned the Daily Telegraph.

The Government has launched a consultation to overhaul the controversial EPCs, while Energy Secretary Ed Miliband wants all rental properties to achieve a minimum EPC rating of C by 2030.

Proposals to favour homes with the ‘capacity to integrate with smart technology’, or green heating systems such as heat pumps, will leave landlords scrambling to renovate properties or sell up.

Driven many landlords out

Ryan Etchells of Together, a property management company, warned that the previous government’s measures had already driven many landlords out of the market.

He added that the UK has a severe shortage of tradespeople – a crisis the government has failed to address in its reforms.

Mr Etchells told the Telegraph: “It’s been like the hokey cokey over the last few years for landlords. But if we’re not careful it could become a frenzy.

“There simply won’t be enough tradespeople to make improvements.

“With this ticking EPC clock in the background, we’ve found a lot of landlords who were five years away from divesting their portfolios are bringing it forward.

“We could see an oversupply of ex-rentals on the market, which is the last thing anyone needs.”

Mr Etchells said: “Lower rated EPCs could become non-standard properties, and appetite for lenders to provide mortgages to them will become more niche.”

EPCs are unreliable

Mr Miliband has described it as a ‘Tory scandal’ that tenants were still ‘shivering in cold draughty homes’.

It has been often pointed out that EPCs in their current form are often unreliable, and that assessors are inconsistent.

A government spokesman said: “Everyone should live in a warm, safe home. Our plans for private and social rented homes to achieve energy performance certificate C or equivalent by 2030 will help deliver cheaper-to-heat homes while lifting up to one million households out of fuel poverty through the biggest potential boost to home energy standards in history. We will consult on these plans in due course.”


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