Lender urges government support for landlord EPC upgrades

Lender urges government support for landlord EPC upgrades

9:37 AM, 22nd August 2024, About a month ago 4

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Skipton Group has called on the government to introduce incentives and support for landlords to upgrade their properties to meet new energy efficiency standards.

Under government plans, all rental properties must achieve an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating of Band C by 2030.

However, research by Skipton reveals significant challenges facing landlords.

It found that a third of landlords don’t know their properties’ current EPC ratings, and Hamptons, warned last week it could take up to 18 years to meet the 2030 target.

‘Challenges in greening their homes’

Skipton’s chief executive of Home Financing, Charlotte Harrison, said: “Landlords play an integral part in the UK’s housing provision, and we know they face significant challenges in greening their homes from an awareness, cost and access to appropriate guidance and skills perspective.

“We believe that when it comes to the decarbonisation of our housing stock, the government needs to consider ways to incentivise and support landlords in forthcoming Budgets to enable them to reach the new proposed target.”

She adds: “Making the necessary improvements to their properties is critical to helping the country meet its net zero target and, importantly, will help to address some of the challenges that the cost of living, energy and climate crises have had on people living in the UK.”

Making energy improvement costs tax deductible

Ms Harrison says the landlord support could include making energy improvement costs tax deductible and offering government grants.

Alternatively, the government could match landlord expenditure ‘£1 for £1’.

She added: “There have been more incentives for homeowners and social tenants to green their homes than there have been for landlords, offering an opportunity for this government to equalise that imbalance.”

Using their personal savings

Skipton Building Society’s EPC customer survey also found that 46% of landlords are planning on using their personal savings to pay for the home improvements.

Plus, 39% of landlords may consider selling their rental homes to avoid upgrading them.

To support landlords, Skipton Building Society has launched EPC Plus, offering free assessments and reports to its members, including buy to let mortgage holders.

These reports provide detailed information on property energy efficiency, potential improvements and cost savings.


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david porter

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10:07 AM, 22nd August 2024, About a month ago

Across our country there are many homes built prior to the second half of the 20th century.
Many of these were built with cavity walls. Now those builders did not say ”Well we should make this construction easy so that when cavity wall insulation is invented it will be easy to retrofit cavity wall insulation”
They did not think to do that and as a consequence there are many instances where cavity wall insulation is not possible to fit at all, or it can only be done badly.
Our ill educated politicians will say that if it was insulated correctly it will meet 21st century standards.
Yes that is correct but it is not possible to do so because of the lack of planning by Victorian builders.
So Mr Milliband what is your solution please? We await your news?

John MacAlevey

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11:07 AM, 22nd August 2024, About a month ago

Milliband is your typical bandwagon jumping politician. He`s a fool spouting nonsense, ignore.

Cider Drinker

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12:13 PM, 22nd August 2024, About a month ago

Reply to the comment left by david porter at 22/08/2024 - 10:07
I have one such property.

I removed a couple of bricks to investigate a damp issue. I was expecting to see corroded wall ties and a breached cavity. Instead, the cavity wall insulation was somewhat hit and miss. It seemed to have been injected at 1 metre intervals but only spread about 200mm - 400mm, thereby leaving spaces where the wall isn’t insulated. The inevitable cold spots attract condensation and hence the problem.

It’s massively expensive to remove the insulation so the solution is to either add more insulation (to a property that wasn’t a suitable candidate for cavity wall insulation in the first instance) or to ignore it and sell up at the first opportunity.

Reluctant Landlord

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13:35 PM, 22nd August 2024, About a month ago

Reply to the comment left by Cider Drinker at 22/08/2024 - 12:13
maybe that would be worthy of an exemption?

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