10:27 AM, 7th February 2025, About 9 hours ago 67
Text Size
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.”
Previous Article
Why Labour's squeeze on the PRS is creating a perfect storm
paul kaye
Become a Member
If you login or become a member you can view this members profile, comments, posts and send them messages!
Sign Up15:11 PM, 7th February 2025, About 4 hours ago
worry not Labour will not be in power and just perhaps,we will have a common sense government.
Beaver
Become a Member
If you login or become a member you can view this members profile, comments, posts and send them messages!
Sign Up15:34 PM, 7th February 2025, About 4 hours ago
Reply to the comment left by paul kaye at 07/02/2025 - 15:11
The Telegraph has picked up on the fact that tenants will be evicted.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/property/ed-miliband-net-zero-targets-threatens-surge-rent-evictions/
The article says that it won't be possible for most landlords to do the work in the timescale allowed (three years).
Actually, I think that I could do it in three years if I evict my tenants RIGHT NOW. It would be financial lunacy but I think if I evicted my current tenants NOW under section 8 and raise the finance I can do the work. But if I do it when I eventually re let this will have to be at a MASSIVELY increased rent (if I relet) to avoid personal penalty imposed by the tax system.
So I could do it. But in order to do it I would have to evict my tenants now, i.e. this year.
Of course Ed's changes will result in tenants being evicted.
My tenants are not asking me to upgrade the EPC.
My tenants are not asking me to replace the condensing gas boiler.
My tenants don't want me to dramatically increase their rent.
My tenants don't want to be evicted. But if plan ahead to meet these changes I probably have to plan to evict my tenants this year.
Don't think you really thought this one through Ed.
Neil Robb
Become a Member
If you login or become a member you can view this members profile, comments, posts and send them messages!
Sign Up15:41 PM, 7th February 2025, About 4 hours ago
£240 a year saving.
Maybe I am thick but watching energy costs go up more than double . Has put tenants in a more vulnerable position.
Seeing there bill going from £1200 a year to £2400 or more.
Look at France they told energy companies you are not increasing your prices
Same french energy companies who own eon more than doubled there UK prices
Beaver
Become a Member
If you login or become a member you can view this members profile, comments, posts and send them messages!
Sign Up15:55 PM, 7th February 2025, About 3 hours ago
Reply to the comment left by Neil Robb at 07/02/2025 - 15:41
The energy security argument is the only thing that came out of Ed's mouth over the last few days that I actually agree with. A dictator (Putin) invades Ukraine and energy prices go up. Prices of wheat, and therefore food, go up as well because Ukraine produces so much of the world's grain.
But the solution to energy security isn't saying "landlords must meet band C.." The solution to that is:
(1) Sort the EPC system out
(2) Let anyone rent any property at any band
(3) Change the tax system so that whether you are a landlord or an owner occupier you can finance the upgrades.
Then the market can sort the problem out. Band A, B, C properties will command higher prices and higher rents. The market can be something that can deliver a solution, rather than just something else for you to hit with your socialist stick.
Desert Rat
Become a Member
If you login or become a member you can view this members profile, comments, posts and send them messages!
Sign Up15:57 PM, 7th February 2025, About 3 hours ago
Reply to the comment left by Beaver at 07/02/2025 - 14:27
Most of my tenants are paying below market rent by quite a few hundred pounds. Thanks to Laybour, this is about to change and I;m increasing to market rent. I'm also informing them why
Desert Rat
Become a Member
If you login or become a member you can view this members profile, comments, posts and send them messages!
Sign Up16:00 PM, 7th February 2025, About 3 hours ago
Reply to the comment left by Beaver at 07/02/2025 - 15:55Dont forget Trump threating to invade Greenland, Panama and Canada. The guy is a loose canon ball. He nearly wrecked the world in his first time in odffice, He is gointg to destroy it this time around
Ian Narbeth
Become a Member
If you login or become a member you can view this members profile, comments, posts and send them messages!
Sign Up16:07 PM, 7th February 2025, About 3 hours ago
Reply to the comment left by Beaver at 07/02/2025 - 15:55
Beaver, I agree with you. Unfortunately, no Labour, Lib Dem or Green MP believes that the free market will sort things out. So, they try to buck the market and damn the torpedoes!
Beaver
Become a Member
If you login or become a member you can view this members profile, comments, posts and send them messages!
Sign Up16:32 PM, 7th February 2025, About 3 hours ago
Reply to the comment left by Ian Narbeth at 07/02/2025 - 16:07
I know but we have to be optimistic don't we?
I don't automatically disagree with everything that labour politicians say. The labour education secretary was on TV this week and said that schools need to focus on getting good results in English and Maths. She commented on positive changes brought about by both David Blunkett and Michael Gove. I thought "...I agree with Maths and English and you are not just blaming everything on the previous administration...so fair enough (although not about Michael Gove as I'm not really a fan but he must have done something useful once)."
And I don't disagree with what Ed says on energy security. But the thing about then concluding that everybody should make band C in 3 years is that it is damaging nonsense, like a lot of what comes out of Donald Trump's mouth.
If they'd got the head of competition and markets authority to take a look at the market and educate them on what happens when you drive competition out by driving small landlords out that would have been a good thing. But then Rachel sacked the head of the CMA for being "anti-growth" as I understand it....like raising employers' NI I guess.
It can't be just me that's fed up of hearing Ed's guff...somebody in the cabinet room must feel the need to open the window and let some fresh air in. Maybe, just maybe if they open the window and let the fresh air in somebody might realise that the only solution to the problem is making the market the solution.
Keith Wellburn
Become a Member
If you login or become a member you can view this members profile, comments, posts and send them messages!
Sign Up16:53 PM, 7th February 2025, About 3 hours ago
A few years back when the student letting agency I used for my HMOs introduced a utility bills package that allowed an all inclusive room price for tha students (subject to a fair usage cap).
At the time I had HMOs with C, D and one E rating. I queried why the utilities element had been negotiated at a standard rate according to the number of tenants in each HMO with no account of the EPC rating.
I was told that this was because in reality the EPC ratings were pretty meaningless and the utility provider was not prepared to risk losing money on the operation.
This rather fits in with my own experience. Don’t have a rating for my own home, but think it would be an F at best My energy bills are nothing like the alarming and silly yearly totals I have seen quoted for low rated properties. The Sunday Times did a good article on this - those in larger draughty old houses like mine wrap up warmly in winter and don’t like overheated houses - many in modern homes with good ratings wear shorts and T shirt in the winter, run the CH overnight, resulting in bills that are not much different!
A bit like the CO2 nonsense with cars. Someone doing 3,000 miles a year in a 12 cylinder Bentley will be emitting less CO2 than someone doing 20,000 miles in a Micra but the idiotic VED doesn’t recognise that.
Beaver
Become a Member
If you login or become a member you can view this members profile, comments, posts and send them messages!
Sign Up17:15 PM, 7th February 2025, About 2 hours ago
Reply to the comment left by Keith Wellburn at 07/02/2025 - 16:53
I don't have an EPC for my own private home either. But I do have a solid fuel stove.
I have looked into them and would view such things as ground source heat pumps and photovoltaics with an open mind, if they made financial sense....but they don't (because of the tax situation).
I am old enough to remember the power cuts of the early 1970s. Then we used to burn coal in the fireplace, light candles in the house and go to bed early. I still get power cuts where I live and because I have a solid fuel stove in the event of power cut we:
(1) burn wood or coal (coal is amazing)
(2) heat kettles and pans of water on our gas hob that still works when the leccy is off
(3) use candles for additional light, and
(3) use lithium battery powered portable lighting devices that of course we didn't have in the 1970s.
So that's how I deal with energy security today. I could add photovoltaics but I probably won't get the money back and lighting the fire and going to bed early still works.
I have a gas condensing boiler. If I wanted to improve my energy security and decrease my bills today then economically my best bet would be to upgrade my solid fuel stove and put a back-boiler back in. And buy some more coal.
The fact that this the only thing that makes economic sense today is not my fault...it's the fault of a ludicrous tax system and dishonest and incompetent politicians who say one thing but act in an entirely different way.