10:27 AM, 7th February 2025, About 6 hours ago 58
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Private landlords in England will need to upgrade their properties to meet a minimum Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating of C by 2030, under a consultation announced by the government.
Nottingham landlord Mick Roberts has hit out at the government plans saying they ‘will simply increase rents and make tenants homeless’ – see his hard hitting video below.
This new requirement, the government says, will improve living standards for renters and reduce energy costs.
Currently, 48% of private rentals already meet this standard.
The changes will necessitate investments in insulation, double glazing, and other energy-saving measures.
The government’s consultation is inviting feedback from tenants and landlords on plans to boost living standards in the PRS and lower energy costs. Key proposals include:
A consultation on a revised fuel poverty strategy will also address home energy performance, affordability for low-income households, and protection from high energy prices.
One of Nottingham’s biggest landlords has slammed the government’s plans for EPC C targets arguing it will simply increase rents and make tenants homeless.
In a video to Ed Miliband, Mick Roberts, one of Nottingham’s largest landlords to house benefit tenants, says the EPC C plans are bonkers.
Mick explains: “What if the tenant was paying cheap rent say £200 per month below the normal rate and suddenly the landlord has got to spend £6000 just to get to EPC C. What do you think is going to happen to that rent? Come and ask the tenant if they want to save £20 per month off their gas bill, but your rent will increase by £200 per month.
“These renter groups love hearing you talking and you get their votes, but in reality, you end up making their lives worse! Mick warns the EPC C changes will leave tenants homeless. Go after the bad landlords that are charging top whack and don’t fix their boiler. Leave alone the private tenants that haven’t got a problem. You say you’ve listened to tenants. You haven’t. You’ve only listened to the ones with problems. You say you have the backing of tenants.
“You don’t have my tenants’ backing. When are you coming to talk to them? They don’t contact you because they’re happy with how things are. Stop interfering with their lives. Ed, every time you talk, you make more tenants homeless.”
Ben Beadle, the chief executive of the National Residential Landlords Association, said: “We all want to see rented homes as energy efficient as possible, but that will require a realistic plan to achieve this.
“The chronic shortage of tradespeople to carry out energy efficiency works needs to be addressed, alongside a targeted financial package to support investments in the work required as called for by the Committee on Fuel Poverty and Citizens Advice.”
He added: “Importantly, a realistic timetable is needed if the 2.5 million private rented homes, which will not currently meet the government’s proposed standards, are to be improved.”
Deputy Prime Minister and housing secretary, Angela Rayner, said: “For far too long we have seen too many tenants plagued by shoddy and poor conditions in their homes and this government is taking swift action to right the wrongs of the past.
“Through our Plan for Change we are driving up housing standards, improving quality of life, and slashing energy bills for working people and families.
“Today is just one of many steps we are taking to deliver on our promise to transform the lives of millions of renters across the country, so families can put down roots and raise their children in secure and healthy homes.”
Energy secretary Ed Miliband said: “For years tenants have been abandoned and forgotten as opportunities to deliver warm homes and lower energy bills have been disregarded and ignored.
“As part of our Plan for Change, these new changes could save renters £240 a year by raising the efficiency of homes to cut the cost of bills.
“These plans will also make sure that all private landlords are investing in their properties, building on the good work of many to upgrade their homes to Energy Performance Certificate C or higher already.”
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Desert Rat
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Sign Up13:55 PM, 7th February 2025, About 3 hours ago
Do the government really have no clue to how many people they are about to make homeless, or do they just not care? I'm guessing that they dont care.
Beaver
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Sign Up13:58 PM, 7th February 2025, About 3 hours ago
Reply to the comment left by Desert Rat at 07/02/2025 - 12:51
I don't know, but the independent says that he only met with the fossil fuel companies before he decided on this policy.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/carbon-capture-green-energy-oil-gas-miliband-b2685103.html
Probably many of them flew in and out of Heathrow for the chat and had a nice lunch on the way.
Money talks doesn't it? I have looked at energy efficiency upgrades in the past and been told that I will only be eligible for the grants if I install the cavity wall insulation being sold by the company determining whether I should get a grant. On the properties where I might have been interested the CWI was irrelevant. The energy was being lost from around the windows, or by opening the front or back door when the heating was on.
That's the problem with all these tick box exercises isn't it? On the properties I was looking at the thing that would make the most difference was installing a porch front and back and upgrading the windows. But no grant because the company doing the assessment didn't make any money out of that.
Of course it doesn't work very well if you replace your gas boiler for a heat pump that takes hours for the property to get up to temperature and somebody then opens the front door to bring their shopping, or the dog in. And it doesn't work unless you install the heat exchanger in the bathroom, or in the spare bedroom where they dry their washing to stop the black mould forming. But these things all take electricity to power them and the government charges more tax on that than on gas.
If lots of people do tick the box by choosing the EPC assessor that works for the company that sells windows as opposed to CWI then lots of tenants are going to be shut up in their properties breathing in their expired air and their intestinal gases in order to keep their inflated electricity bills down.
I'm guessing that's a bit like being in the cabinet room when Ed Miliband is there. I bet many of the cabinet are now thinking that somebody ought to open a window and let some fresh air in.
Gromit
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Sign Up14:04 PM, 7th February 2025, About 3 hours ago
Reply to the comment left by Jo Westlake at 07/02/2025 - 11:32
... it's clear this nothing to do with helping tenants (that's just the spin) but bashing Landlords and virtue signalling their climate change agenda.
paul kaye
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Sign Up14:08 PM, 7th February 2025, About 3 hours ago
Miliband is a complete moron with no idea at all.
Landlords do not make so much profit to pay £15000
where does the money come from?
If it is capped at £10000 again where does the money come from.? Grants are needed!
I will probably sell up and let that idiot Mili house people,as clearly he has no idea.
All that happens is rents go up .
EPC's are in many cases wrong,so MILI when we have roof insulation,wall insulation,good boilers,double glazing,what do you propose? perhaps jumping up and down to keep warm!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Desert Rat
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Sign Up14:08 PM, 7th February 2025, About 3 hours ago
Beaver, I've always paid for my energy upgrades myself, None have been paid for the tax payer. If the government now want me to pay out silly money to upgrade, either they pay for it or I sell the house and kick out the tenent. Its quite simple for me and I will let them know tha the government forced me to do it
Beaver
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Sign Up14:18 PM, 7th February 2025, About 2 hours ago
Reply to the comment left by Desert Rat at 07/02/2025 - 14:08
I have looked at grants many times in the past and always found that I was never eligible for them so like you the government has never paid for anything I've done. They've only ever taken tax off me.
If this goes ahead then like you I will be taking alternative action. And what I will do will result in the tenants losing 'their home', which just like youI will view as an easy decision because the government will be responsible for it, not me.
If the government wants to change that and stop the consequences of the decisions being taken by their-climate-change-crusaders being inflicted upon tenants then it needs to change the tax system.
Gromit
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Sign Up14:18 PM, 7th February 2025, About 2 hours ago
Reply to the comment left by Beaver at 07/02/2025 - 13:58
Currently if you replace a gas boiler with a heat pump your EPC will worsen.
Pid1 P
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Sign Up14:24 PM, 7th February 2025, About 2 hours ago
That's bob on Mick Roberts. The majority of my tenants are long term tenants paying far less than market rent. With the proposed EPC changes, that will no longer be an option. The successive governmental 'beat the landlords with a sh***y stick' campaign is already having large repercussions on tenants lives and the reason for all the anti-landlord rhetoric is purely to attract votes - at any cost.
Beaver
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Sign Up14:27 PM, 7th February 2025, About 2 hours ago
Reply to the comment left by Gromit at 07/02/2025 - 14:18
It will. The tenants' heating bills will go up in my rental property and if I invest the money to increase both their bills and their rents by financing the upgrades then because I cannot offset my finance costs against rents I will have to increase their rents even more. If I do it in my own home it will cost me a fortune and my kids will be heavily penalised by the tax system.
I think Ed has been in favour of this because he hasn't just had his head up his own a**e, he's also had his head up the a***s of the big energy companies. And because like a lot of labour politicians he doesn't have the first idea about business, economics or tax he licked all their guff up and swallowed it, probably along with a nice lunch.
Now the funny thing about this is that I suspect that both my principle private residence and my rental property could probably be retrofitted to be net energy contributors to the grid. That c**p that Ed has swallowed about carbon capture is just science fiction. It would be possible to make my properties net contributors and it is the tax system that stops me doing it.
LaLo
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Sign Up15:08 PM, 7th February 2025, About 2 hours ago
As clear as mud to me! A PRS property has to meet EPC C by 2030 and it has to be met by 2028 for new tenancies but having read through the proposals, I can’t find what’s defined as a ‘new tenancy’ timeline prior to 2028! I must have missed something - somewhere.