Government promises to help landlords with EPC costs

It isn’t beyond the realms of possibility that the government introduces a green tax penalty on rental properties below EPC ‘C’; the vast majority being older stock held by small landlords – the government’s preferred target.

Ironic isn’t it………..

Allegedly going to help with this, yet causing so much damage to the private rented sector that landlords have and are leaving in their droves.

Won’t be much help needed as the number of landlords decline.

“The government has announced all private rented properties will need to meet EPC C targets by 2030”. They can announce whatever they like but their words are meaningless until this is passed in law. And it hasn’t.

Seeing is believing’ in my book! Many inside wall insulation jobs are riddled with damp/mould even with vents and will cost even more to put right!

`private finance options`…

Many schools & hospitals were constructed during Gordon Broon`s time as PM using PF, those debts are astronomic, almost unpayable in a lifetime. Broon used the method to saddle the nation with debt & look good politically. It`s the wrong way to find public finance.

It’s just a pack of lies, I have applied on several occasions and each time told the properties don’t qualify , because they have solid walls…. despite it being for solid wall insulation….Loft insulation was going to cost me more after the grant, than to.just buy my own and get a local bloke to do it….
This is just a tick box lie.

Reply to the comment left by Over taxed at 06/07/2026 – 13:45
I have also investigated grants in the past and had a property assessed; the company doing the assessing (i.e. acting as the gatekeeper for the grant) was a company selling cavity wall insulation. The company selling cavity wall insulation wouldn’t allow access to the grant unless their cavity wall insulation was purchased. But filling cavity walls causes problems, and the government knows that:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cavity-wall-insulation-cwi-consumer-guide-to-issues-arising-from-installations

There is an increased risk of water penetration if a cavity is fully filled and many landlords know that:

https://insulationgo.co.uk/blog/cavity-wall-insulation-problems-yes-or-no/

There are things that the government could do. One of them is to change the EPC system and the grant system such that filling a cavity wall is not a knee-jerk, automatic response, and in order that there is a way forward for any property, regardless of whether it has solid walls, or cavities that should not be filled.

The other thing that the government could do is to reform the tax system such that retrofitting a home not just to improve energy efficiency but also to diversify our energy system actually becomes worth it financially. Today most landlords are only penalised for doing it.

The EPC could be infinitely improved simply by listing suggested improvements by lowest cost first. Instead of telling me £12000 of wall insulation will save the tenant £290 a year, they could tell me I can get a C by changing the Thermostat, light bulbs and loft insulation before telling me to dig up the floor…

Reply to the comment left by Over taxed at 15:15
I agree entirely and would add to that before telling you, me or anybody else to dig up the floor, or rip out the internal plaster to dry-line and insulate internally necessitating tens of thousands of pounds of additional expenses in making good, only to make our floor joists and ceiling timbers rot. It is not as if the government does not know that solid walls with lime plaster and mortar need to ventilate, or that many wall cavities should not be filled completely, because they are having to compensate people for filling them. And it is not as if the government does not know about problems with external cladding either, given what happened at Grenfell.
And if they want to change the EPC system so that it benefits you to install photovoltaics even if you have solid walls, or cavities that should not be filled that is also fine by me. This is not necessarily going to reduce tenant energy bills, reduce the tenants combined rent and energy bill, or make any difference to climate change; but it could reduce vulnerability to price shocks caused by spiking energy prices.
Oh…and the government could also reflect upon the fact that it charges more tax on electricity than it does on gas. Some of the additional costs may be down to Ed Miliband.

Reply to the comment left by Beaver at 06/07/2026 – 15:23
Directly or indirectly systematic target is to force sell Thier properties by any law, if this C is so much of a concern why only rented properties why not all the properties?
So the homeowner has no value at all whether they live in a damp or not