Labour government clashes over upgrade costs for EPC C targets

Is anyone involved in these dictats even aware that in leasehold flats landlords are unable to do structural upgrades?

Does Ed Miliband seriously think I would permit solid wall insulation on my remaining Victorian rental which would be likely needed to get from a high D to a C even if it were provided free for the low income tenants?

98% of homes fitted under ECO obligations having serious problems tells me all I need to know despite the attempt to make out it is all down to cowboy installers. (And even if it were, why would the future be any different from the past at the scale needed with huge numbers of installers needing to be recruited and trained in a timescale that any sane adult except Ed can see is completely ridiculous?)

The £15k cap is just another example of London being the only rental market that counts for policy makers. I own a small portfolio of “street houses” in the northeast of England. The average market price of these properties is around £60k. So I’m expected to spend 25% of their market value? I’ve seen similar houses in London advertised for £450k so London Landlords spend under 4% of their capital value. Luckily for me the big corporates are snapping up whole streets at the moment and converting them to HMOs. Not so good for the local people being made homeless though.

Some upgrades are practical and cost effective. Others aren’t.
Smart heating controls are probably the best low cost, minimal disruption upgrade. However, tenants need to engage with them.
Solid floor or interior wall insulation is completely impractical in an occupied property and takes decades to pay for itself.
Solar panels are brilliant but only on some houses.

A great many tenants would prefer to live in a centrally located house with a lower EPC than a house miles from amenity with a better EPC. The cost, time and environmental impact of travel should not be excluded from the equation. In most parts of the country heating costs are only high for a few weeks a year, whereas travel costs would be all year round.
For example the gas bill in my EPC E 6 person HMO is around £30 per month in the summer and £140 per month in the winter. Total annual cost of around £985. The tenants have full access to the heating programmer and it’s never cold. The house is walking distance to pretty much everything (city centre, university, hospital, leisure activities, etc).
At least 2 of my EPC C HMOs have higher gas bills at £1158 and £1345 per year. Plus they aren’t so conveniently located so travel costs would also need to be factored in.

Tenants could find themselves significantly worse off if a lot of the D and E rated properties get pushed out of the PRS.

Reply to the comment left by Keith Wellburn at 10:18

Thought I would give my real world input on my internal insulation.
I’ve had two solid stone houses internally insulated. Everything seems to be ok. It is one year on. I have not had any reports of problems and I have not seen any problem.
I watched the installs and the softer insulation was used along with studs which were insulated on the rear. A vapour barrier was then laid over this set up and the plaster board applied.
The tenants put up with the disruption, but the system was fitted in about 2 days and then plastered over another two days. Electrics and a bit of plumbing were also fitted around these trades.
I was upgrading the kitchen at the time so I ripped out the kitchen to make the instal in this room much easier. Otherwise this room wouldn’t have been insulated.
The bathrooms were not insulated as this would have required the same treatment as the kitchen, but I was not upgrading these areas.

Reply to the comment left by John at 23/10/2025 – 10:46
I wouldn’t be keen on internal insulation in the galley kitchen of my property as space is already at a premium. With one of the student HMOs I previously owned where the smallest bedroom was only marginally larger than 6.51sq M, internal insulation would have made the room unusable as a bedroom (one of the same build I owned nearby was declared undersize by the council for the HMO licence even though without actually measuring I would have challenged anyone to tell which was which). A point to bear in mind if rooms are near the minimum room sizes.

To be fair it was only one in three with serious problems for internal insulation so better odds but still a gamble for me as the area is low lying and of course all DPCs are retrofit in this type and age of property, usually injection and can need re doing over time. Installing a physical barrier DPC would give me more confidence but very expensive (the house is sub £100k).

I have first hand experience of the Wild West element – more than twenty years ago I gave permission for loft insulation under a scheme as the occupant qualified. There was no hatch to the main roof, just one in the rear offshoot bedroom. I assumed they’d used this for access. They hadn’t, just putting insulation around this as I found out after they left when the main bedroom had mould all over the ceiling and I investigated further. I put a hatch to the main roof void and installed 300mm myself.

Reply to the comment left by Keith Wellburn at 23/10/2025 – 11:13
Just to clarify, the mould situation was after the tenants left, some years after installation. I made attempts to get the installation firm held to account but no surprise when I reported it via the ECO scheme that had arranged it that the installation company had ceased trading.