New EPC metric system will drive landlords to install heat pumps

They will never force me to install a heat pump. I will sell the houses and use a S8 to kick out the tenant.

I wouldn’t have one in my own house and I won’t be installing 1 in any of my rentals.

Will try to have all houses given a new EPC C before it kicks in to give me 10 years, any that don’t make it will be sold. I’ve already done all of the EPC upgrades that I’m willing to do.

I’m calling the governments bluff on this one, there would be so many tenants left homeless. It’s just not possible to consider it becoming a total collapse of the private rental market.

I’m at the point in my life where I don’t care if I have to start selling houses. I don’t want to make anyone homeless by selling, when tenants move out, I’m considering selling a few and have already offered several houses to tenants if they want to buy them, unfortunately none are in a position to buy.

I’ve also got tenants on waiting lists for council bungalows, but from what they say and other previous experience, they know that
they
may be waiting years.

We should remember that there are exemptions for EPCs.

If your tenant stays, they can refuse EPC “upgrades”. You apply for a ‘third party consent exemption’.

If they don’t refuse the upgrade, use Section 8 Ground 1A and sell up or increase the rent to recover the costs.

So dearest tenants, “Would you like to pay £100 per month more rent to have a better EPC that’ll save you £20 per month or would you prefer to refuse consent?”

Reply to the comment left by GlanACC at 06/02/2026 – 20:07
I think you will find that is the same in every property as a heat pump cannot reach as high of a temperature as a gas boiler then the radiators need to be bigger..

Heat pumps also only work on extremely well insulated properties as otherwise they would struggle to get it up to temperature..

The EPC rules as stands only require you to spend £10k so I think Solar is probably a better bet if possible..

For now I would do nothing, get a new EPC before Oct 2029 if your property meets a C rating as this is when the EPC changes so basically anything without a heatpump wont reach a C. That will give you 10yrs.

Remember though this comes in 2030 by which time we are likely to have a new government, Reform who are odds on favourites have pledged to scrap it and even if someone else comes in it will likely be extended or changed anyway so I would not worry too much..

Paris climate accord 2015, the UK government is signed up to this and as a result is restricted in green options to reduce CO2 emissions. Industry has invested millions of pounds to create an alternative to fossil fuel energy that sits comfortably with all signed up members. As a result of this all signed up members agreed to invest in industries solutions (solar panels and reverse engineered air-conditioning units or heat pumps). Note industry did not invest in hydrogen cells which is an equally clean energy solution. There is no joined up thinking when it comes to recycling redundant kit and the cost to the environment doing this. The massive amount of plastics involved in these kits (plastic a derivative of crude oil and natural gas,fossil fuel). As a result in Australia for example, perfectly good working solar panels that are no longer as efficient as modern ones are being put in landfill sites. Realistically, the government does not require every house to have solar panels and heat pumps. The government only requires a mechanism to demonstrate that we are engaged with this attitude and has factored in the provision of applying for an EPC exemption factored into a cost cap and/or a tenant insistence that changing from gas is unacceptable them to them I’m rights to the landlord insisting their lifestyle should be respected around their choice of using gas.
Well done for reading to the end, therefore we have to stop using gas and oil to provide enough gas and oil to make alternative heating and energy systems, you could make this stuff up🤦‍♂️

He wants tenants to have affordable homes? What about those that have cheaper rent that are affordable now, and with these measures, he’s now making their homes unaffordable?

Totally with you there Mick. Most of my tenants have been with me long term and are paying less than £600 PCM for nice 3 bed houses that are currently advertised for £800+ The only thing this is going to do is make me sell houses once they no longer have a long EPC C. I’ve already stopped buying any houses in the UK and under current conditions will never buy any more.

I almost bought 1 for my grand niece last year but I was lucky and the sale fell through as I was on vacation and my solicitor said she could not complete within 2 weeks.

I had a lucky escape.

Now pulling money out of th4e UK and investing overseas. I’ve already left the UK. and investing elsewhere.

Well done Labor by rising my income tax by an Extra 2% It’s made me move my money overseas and started my sell off of my houses.

I have looked into the details (as the proposals currently stand).

In a G2 listed property with no gas so HHSH are the only option. That being the case they wont get a high rating just because they are installed – they still HAVE to be connected to a duel rate meter.

1. I cannot simply change the meter if the tenant is in situ – its their bill their meter. So I cant achieve the ‘best possible’ EPC on 10 year cert because it is completely dependent on tenant at the time the EPC is taken (they could move out the next day?)
2. If they are in all day then they will be be using more energy during the peak periods like lighting , kettles, cooking (even if the heating is charged during the cheaper night time rate) – so potentially means higher bills than they would be on an average day rate plan.
3. For tenants out all day then the heaters are not on at night when they come in and need the heat.

Reply to the comment left by Cider Drinker at 07/02/2026 – 10:59
S8 Ground 6 gets the same result, but you aren’t stuffed for over a year if you wanted to relet.
Like you say call the gov’s bluff.

Using the ‘tenant refuses’ exemption will be the most used get out clause I expect. While the exemption only lasts 5 years, (or until the current tenancy ends), can you really see a T going anywhere at all if their rent is lower that comparable properties where costly upgrades have been carried out?

Reply to the comment left by David Lawrenson at 06/02/2026 – 09:56
I don’t know whether anyone saw it but last night on Channel 4 there was a programme presented by Guy Martin in which he looked at what it takes to retrofit an old home to improve the energy performance. On balance I would say that it was a good programme and did not shy away from most of the issues.

By way of inspiration they looked at a converted church that was bought during lockdown at a knock-down price during the pandemic. According to the programme by spending about a million pounds on it the owners managed to get it to achieve the Passiv House standard. These were clearly rich people. Whether they ended up with a house that was worth the purchase price AND what they’d spent renovating it the programme didn’t say, but it probably didn’t matter because they were rich people. If they’d HAD to do it to make money then they’d probably have been better off doing something other than what they did with the church.

What the programme was really about was taking a 1920s semi-detached home in Stretford where the average price of a house is about £300K, and trying to retrofit it to achieve the Passiv House standard. They gutted it and spent ‘six figures’ on it. The point that they said they were trying to make was that if you can do this with a 100-year old house then it ought to be possible to do it with a new-build. I think that may be true but the real question is what do you do about retrofitting existing housing stock?

At the end of the programme they had a cameo appearance from Andy Burnham, mayor of Manchester, who visited the property to take a look. They hadn’t achieved the Passiv House standard but they said that they had made the property ‘90% more efficient’. And Andy Burnham said that there was money available to retrofit properties. There would need to be wouldn’t there?

Spending six figures, i.e. > 100k on a £300K property isn’t an option for most owner occupiers, tenants or landlords. I’m guessing that the average energy bill of a 1920s semi is going to be of the order of £1.5-2K per annum. If the house was ‘90% more efficient’ then doesn’t that mean that they spent more than £100K to achieve an annual saving of £150-£200 per annum in a £300K house?

So whilst this was a very good and balanced programme in terms of the physics, the point that they actually proved was the point that they didn’t cover…or possibly avoided. This is that it doesn’t make financial sense and the reason it doesn’t make financial sense and remains the preserve of a few rich people and media companies making programmes for Channel 4 is because of the tax system.

The programme did make the point that in energy performance terms a heat pump recovers energy at about 4x the rate at which you are putting electricity in. And the programme made the point that electricity is 4x the price of gas….although they didn’t make the point that the government also taxes electricity at a higher rate than gas. They also made the point that heat pumps aren’t responsive and in order to get them to work ‘successfully’ (in energy performance terms) there is a lot of other capital expenditure and extra work in installation.

Socialist politicians love to take money off you via the tax system and then play lord and lady bountiful by giving a little bit of the money that they’ve taken off you in tax back to SOMEBODY as ‘grants’. But when you look at what is on offer you usually find that you aren’t entitled to the grant. And when you look at the tax system you also find that you can’t offset all the expenditure against rents because it is capital expenditure and not revenue expenditure and the capital allowances aren’t there. If you could offset the massive capital investment required against your income tax or against your inheritance tax bill then what was achieved in the programme would start to become achievable in real life by normal people.

In the programme Andy Burnham mentioned that there was money available in Greater Manchester to retrofit houses in order to improve energy performance. Does anybody know how much is available per property and whether that is available to owners and landlords with typical 3-4 bedroom EPC band D properties? Or is this money only available to a select few?

Reply to the comment left by steve p at 07/02/2026 – 12:51
Steve. My daughter and husband had a heat pump fitted. They did it the proper way – removed gas boiler and radiators and fitted underfloor water heating. I thought the property would be cold but actually it was comfortable.

BUT …. In order to get hot water for a shower (assuming not electric shower) the tank of water used by the heat pump system still has an immersion heater in it.

AND .. although they got a £5k sub of the government for the heat pump they had to raise all the skirting boards , new doors and a complete redecoration — that actually cost at least an extra £12k (the £5k didnt cover the full cost of the heat pump)

AND .. they haven’t save on electricity costs as the heat pump costs as much as gas to run.

BUT .. they did get an improved EPC rating – which wasn’t much compensation for the spend really.