Landlords face an uphill battle to meet Labour’s 2030 EPC target – it should be 2042!

So much to unpick here.

Firstly, I am yet to see a Bill outlining Labour’s proposals. Do they know how government works.

Saving tenants around £500 isn’t much when it might cost the landlord many £thousands to achieve EPC Rating C. Rents will rise by £500 per year if landlords have to spend £5,000+ in energy saving measures.

Rushing to meet a ridiculous deadline will attract cowboy installers. I have one property where I know that the cavity wall insulation is patchy. There are large voids where it didn’t spread well. This cause condensation to form on the inside.

It’s unfair on private landlords and their tenants. Why not lead by example and force Social Housing to meet the standard first? Or even owner-occupied properties whenever they are marketed for sale and private rentals only when there’s a change of tenant?

Rental yields may be higher in the North. However, the costs of maintenance and repair are higher in the North both in real terms and as a percentage of rental income/house price. Older properties cost more to maintain and therefore whilst gross yields may be higher, actual profit is much more modest.and probably less than the returns achieved elsewhere in the U.K.

Older properties were simply not designed to have every orifice blocked with insulation. It would be better to have the homes demolished and replaced by modern, suitably designed new homes that are fit for the 21st Century.

Recent winters have seen the U.K. struggle to supply power to homes. I guess building millions more houses to meet migrant demand won’t help with that particular problem.

Let’s be honest, Labour don’t care about private tenants and their heating bills. They care only about deflecting blame for their failure to plan. A failure contributed by the Tories. We should have been building nuclear plants to meet today’s needs decades ago.

My first internal insulation one under some of the new £6000 grants a year ago, we now have mould inside a cupboard-Got to check this week.
Not everything is as it seems Ed Miliband.
You got your C Ed Miliband, but woman now has mould-Someone please send him this.

I don't for one min think that this will happen in reality in any way shape or form in the timescale they have dreamt up.

Just Millibonce justifying his existence and trying to get himself noticed. They promised 'change' and now things need to be SEEN to be happening.

I shall wait till the last possible min to do anything. There simply wont be enough 'government approved' contractors regardless of what they say.

If they carry on with their anti PRS agenda properties will be sold to FTB's where the regs wont apply - that's then going to bugger up their ridiculous Net Zero targets.....

'uphill battle to meet'.

You aren't supposed to meet it, this EU originated programme to chase the zero energy consumption targets driven by the fake 'climate crisis', this has nothinf to do with benefitting tenants but, as with many other things, the erosion of private capital and it goes beyond the PRS, the EU intends to extend COMPULSORY measures on owner occs and with government doing the work if it's not affordable but leaving you with the debt.

Why would they not look to achieve minimum D as a stage 1, then C later? I have a few Ds and to be honest they are pretty good homes that are pleasant to live in. I have a couple of Es that I could get to Ds but will struggle to make Cs, so I am selling them instead.
I don't have the appetite to find random builders to rip my well decorated houses apart to make them Cs, with all that will inevitably entail.

EPC is flawed and even if it wasn't the minimal rating needs to be on a per property basis or a least what era it was built. Something build over 100 years ago is not going to get a C without major issues/cost. Ed just needs to accept that a lot of housing stock is simply too old and unsuitable.

"Long-term gas production and demand outlook in the UK 2024-2050. Natural gas production in the United Kingdom is expected to fall from 30.6 billion cubic meters in 2024 to two billion cubic meters in 2050" The EPC, even though it has it's faults - is a means to an end. In that for multiple reasons, we have to move away from fossil fuels. It's not going to be an easy transition, one that can be blamed on by multiple governments inaction for long term planning.

Forget it, Millipede is grandstanding, he`s clueless as to how that work would be achieved..it just will not be.

On Reddit, someone claimed to have spent £6000 on a spray foam insulation to increase their EPC rating only for the mortgage provider to claim their house was unmortgageable due to the spray foam insulation when they came to remortgage. Be weary of filling your walls or roof space with chemicals to meet EPC targets, the government doesn't care about your assets, only its own arbitrary targets.

I am not sure how many tenants know about the RRF bill, the proposed EPC regulations and all the other “good things” in store for them. Some have probably not heard about it, some are gloating about evil landlords being punished. I am not sure that all tenants realise they are the landlords only source of income. Landlord costs go up, rent goes up.
I understand that tenants will be able to refuse EPC upgrades being carried out. Just explain to them them you can’t afford it and must sell up, or rent will have to go up by £200 month to cover the work to save them £300 a year on fuel, or rent stays the same if they say they don’t want the work done. The choice is theirs. I think we all know what the answer to that one is going to be. It is the same reason home owners (myself included) are not rushing to improve EPC ratings, it is just not worth it. Especially with the rubbish inconsistent EPC evaluation system, we have.