Letting Agents & Landlords face a major problem with Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) bands following research published today that reveals how millions of homes in the UK will never reach the statutory C rating whatever their owners do.
It has been illegal to rent out a property with an EPC rating of below band E since April 1st 2020, but the government says the minimum level of energy efficiency required will be raised to a band C in 2030.
Almost 1.7 million do not have the potential to improve higher than an EPC rating of between D and G, according to fresh analysis of over 15 million homes across England & Wales by Rightmove.
Gwynedd in Wales has the highest proportion of homes with an EPC rating of D or below (77.4%), which could be reduced to 21.7% of homes if recommended improvements were made, according to the study
Castle Point in Essex comes in second with 77.2% of homes rated D or below, though it has the potential to reduce to 13% of all homes
Tower Hamlets in London has the lowest proportion of homes with a current EPC rating of D or below, at 27.4%.
Across England and Wales, 59% of homes have a D, E, F or G rating and there is the potential for this to be reduced to 11% of homes if recommended improvements were made, according to the research.
Rightmove says landlords wishing to upgrade their homes can complete relatively inexpensive improvements to their properties including insulating a hot water cylinder (£23), low energy lighting in all areas (£38), draughtproofing single-glazed windows (£100) and increasing loft insulation (£223).
“It’s encouraging to see that there are some energy efficiency improvements that can cost less than £100,” says Rightmove’s Director of Property Data Tim Bannister.
“The bigger challenge is for those homes with much lower ratings that will cost a substantial amount of money to improve.”
“It’s early days with some lenders now starting to introduce green mortgages as incentives, but homeowners need to be better informed that how green your home is will become increasingly important as we aim to move towards a net zero society, and they need more help to understand why making improvements are so important for the long term.”
Written by Jinay
