Government launches EPC grants for landlords with rent increase ban

Rather than the government offering huge grants and then getting landlords to jump through hoops to get them and implimement them, a greater emphasis should be put into producing EPC assessment criteria which looks purely at the energy efficiency rather than incuding the running costs.
This would allow many properties currently in the D rating to move to the C rating without doing anything or by just making a few tweeks.

Reply to the comment left by John Hill at 03/04/2025 – 06:40
I agree with this (although I’m not convinced that it is in the public interest for tenants to be prevented from renting band D, E, or F properties if they either want or need to do it).

But when the government changes the EPC system there needs to be a process built into the system that permits the property owner, e.g. landlord or owner-occupier, to challenge the assumptions in the EPC rating by using data and measurements.

Get this comment now when click on link above, maybe it’ll change this week?:

“This service is currently for homeowners
However, privately rented homes can still be eligible for Warm Homes: Local Grant funding.

Please contact your Local Authority directly if you are a tenant in a privately rented home and your landlord supports your application for Warm Homes: Local Grant.

Please also contact your Local Authority directly if you are a private landlord and support an application for the Warm Homes: Local Grant for your rented property.”

Will it apply to student lets with non UK resident tenants?

Reply to the comment left by Celine at 03/04/2025 – 11:42
I clicked on the link. As usual I’m not eligible either as a landlord or as a homeowner.

Looking at the tax position as an owner-occupier, if I were to spend money on making enough changes to my main home to significantly improve the EPC rating, and if this improvement to the EPC rating in turn increased the value of my house, then the effect would be:

(1) The investments that I would have to make now would not result in me recovering the costs in saved energy bills between now and my likely passing.

(2) The amount of investment that I would have to make to significantly improve the energy performance of my home would also reduce the amount of money that I can gift now to my children.

(3) Particularly since Rachel Reeves included pensions in the scope of inheritance tax, the increase in value of my main home would result in my children facing a much larger inheritance tax bill at 40% tax to pay after my death.

Looking at my buy-to-let investment my tenants would not qualify for grants: Because I am a non-incorporated small portfolio landlord and cannot offset my interest costs against rents I would be penalised for raising extra finance to invest in energy improvements and because to make a significant difference to the EPC rating I would have to make significant improvements it appears to me that these would be likely to be capital expenditure. Without the necessary capital allowances it appears that I would be unable to offset all the expenditure against rents.

For those people who are housing low-income tenants I’m guessing that the property would only be eligible for the grant if the tenant remains in situ. A small proportion of landlords and tenants may benefit but it will make no significant difference to energy security or climate change.

I donot see anything for London Borough of Hounslow in the List downloaded.
Is there more than or list longer than BARNET post codes?

It seems you only need to meet one of the criteria. I have a flat with someone on a low income below 36000. I started to apply on gov site but it redirects landlords to your local authority. My local authority said the tenants income had to be below 30k but provided a link to apply. The link takes you to a company which says the income criteria is below 36K. I filled in the application form which was easy. When I get a response I will update.

Impact on Rent Increases: It’s important to note that accepting these grants comes with the condition that landlords agree not to increase rent. This measure aims to ensure that the financial benefits of energy efficiency improvements are passed on to tenants, helping to alleviate the impact of rising living costs. However, some landlords have expressed concerns about this stipulation, fearing it may affect their rental income.

Time to sell up and top up my pension.

Reply to the comment left by Ian Sam at 05/04/2025 – 19:45
I think you’ll find that Rachel is after your pension as well.