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18:01 PM, 20th September 2023, About 8 months ago 49
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Landlords will be celebrating after the government announced it will scrap the energy performance certificate (EPC) targets for homes.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak unveiled the plan – along with a ban on binning gas boilers – during a televised press conference from Downing Street.
And tenants will be celebrating too since Mr Sunak acknowledged that the cost of carrying out EPC improvements to meet a minimum rating of C would impact the rent they pay.
He said that property owners would not now be forced to make expensive upgrades in just two years’ time and the cost of energy improvements could be around £8,000.
The prime minister said: “Those plans will be scrapped and while we will continue to subsidise energy efficiency, we will never force any household to do it.”
The chief executive of the National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA), Ben Beadle, said: “The NRLA wants to see all properties as energy efficient as possible.
“However, the uncertainty surrounding energy efficiency policy has been hugely damaging to the supply of rented properties.
“Landlords are struggling to make investment decisions without a clear idea of the Government’s direction of travel.
He continued: “It is welcome that landlords will not be required to invest substantial sums of money during a cost-of-living crisis when many are themselves struggling financially.
“However, ministers need to use the space they are creating to develop a full plan that supports the rental market to make the energy efficiency improvements we all want to see.
“This must include appropriate financial support and reform of the tax system which currently fails to support investment in energy efficiency measures.”
However, the decision to bin EPC ratings for rented homes has been slammed by Dan Wilson Craw, the deputy chief executive of Generation Rent.
He said: “Cancelling higher standards for rented homes is a colossal error by the government.
“Leaving the impact on the climate to one side, it makes the cost-of-living crisis worse and damages renters’ health.
“One in four private renters lives in fuel poverty and, without targets for landlords to improve their properties, they face many more years of unaffordable bills.”
Mr Wilson Craw continued: “Energy efficiency is also an essential part of a home’s quality.
“Backtracking leaves the government’s levelling up mission to halve the number of non-decent rented homes in shreds.
“Both tenants and landlords need support to upgrade private rented homes, and the Prime Minister recognised that ‘big government grants’ help make it affordable.
“But without higher standards, landlords have no reason to accept tenants’ requests for improvements.”
He added: “The government’s dithering over these standards in recent years has led to the housing sector being unprepared for the original 2025 deadline.
“Ditching it completely is both cruel and out of proportion to what the Prime Minister wants to achieve.”
Landlords and homeowners will also have more time to make the transition to heat pumps, and households will only have to make the switch when they’re changing their boiler – and then not until 2035.
Mr Sunak says that gas boilers will not have to be ‘ripped out’ to meet targets and that heat pumps will need to be made cheaper, so they don’t impose high costs on families.
There will be an exemption will be introduced for some households and the boiler upgrade scheme will be increased by 50% to £7,500.
Mr Sunak also postponed the 2030 deadline for buying diesel- and petrol-powered cars and vans to 2035.
That moves the deadline to the EU deadline.
However, the government remains committed to a 2050 deadline for Net Zero but will be more pragmatic and transparent about how the steps will affect people.
He said: “The risk here to those of us who care about reaching net zero, as I do, is simple: if we continue down this path, we risk losing the consent of the British people.
‘And the resulting backlash would not just be against specific policies but against the wider mission itself meaning we might never achieve our goal.
“That’s why we have to do things differently.”
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Luke P
18:24 PM, 20th September 2023, About 8 months ago
And do we think the inevitable Labour Government won't revive this the moment they're in power and we've all gotten used to the idea of *not* now having to comply?
Even if it's the Conservatives, just as they've U-turned on a stedfast policy, they could easily do the same again and reverse the reversal.
We need mandated, decade-long, 'no-revisiting' rules for Government decisions!
Fed Up Landlord
18:33 PM, 20th September 2023, About 8 months ago
Diddums Wilson Craw. Has nasty Rishi rained on your parade? Oh dear, never mind 😀
Dennis Forrest
18:42 PM, 20th September 2023, About 8 months ago
A triumph for common sense
Dennis Forrest
18:44 PM, 20th September 2023, About 8 months ago
A triumph for common sense - it is a shame that cross part agreement can't be reached on such important matters
Tim
18:52 PM, 20th September 2023, About 8 months ago
One down, two to go. Just the Renters (Reform) Bill and Section 24 now!
Our business has gone Limited with our properties but I really appreciate that Section 24 is a ludicrous situation to be in where you can pay more in tax than you make profit. How can that even be legal?
RRB, we are getting noises that it’s unlikely to be this year, and then, if it even goes through next year, many MPs will be extremely worried, depending on their own rental income when they lose their seats.
Then perhaps the government could focus their efforts on streamlining the court system to process S21 quickly, as intended, without as is often the case of being ridiculously pedantic, and spending the courts real time on the other sections, in a sensible, realistic manner and not incorrectly interpreting the intent of the Act sometimes to suit their personal views.
Rod
19:17 PM, 20th September 2023, About 8 months ago
iHowz welcome the clarification that the proposed new MEES/EPC will now be pushed back.
We have been lobbying government for clarity on failure of the government to publish their new ePC/MEES requirements since before COP26.
https://ihowz.uk/the-anticipated-standards-for-the-minimum-energy-efficiency-standards-mees/
iHowz will continue to lobby government to take a more pragmatic approach to encouraging landlords and other homeowners to make their properties more energy efficient and prepare for low carbon heating.
We will push for any new EPC/MEES regime to
- register previous works and associated costs
- cost requirements to take into account payback relative to energy saving and local market rents
- commit to providing direct funding for landlords - outside the existing ECO 4 and LADS schemes
- recognise that heat pumps are only suitable for certain properties and locations
- relax planning constrains and planning fees for buildings in conservation areas or which are listed
- improve the current certification regime
Without a clear roadmap detailing the proposed higher standards, it is understandable that landlords will delay investing significant amounts of money with the risk that they will not comply with new standards.
Jay
19:47 PM, 20th September 2023, About 8 months ago
The EPC threat of potential costs and original proposed deadline date was not realistic for many landlords. Even without the cost of living crisis. It would have been a disaster if enforced on so many levels. Now it’s put forward as if the government are helping us.
Can we really trust them? Did they really have a choice other than to amend their original proposals. In short they have caused so much uncertainty and unfairness on so many levels in the property market. It does feel like a kick between the legs for landlords and has adversely affected many tenants.
Yes the market needs to be cleaned up, but who allowed it to become this way by not enforcing tighter rules years ago. Yes we need to improve energy efficiency through insulation etc However it has to be realistic.
john thompson
20:40 PM, 20th September 2023, About 8 months ago
So I wasted money upgrading on stupid things and depriving my new tennants of the newly fitted gas fire to get from d to c.
Lucky I didn't have to spend too much but what about all the landlords who sold up because they knew it couldn't be achieved or would cost a fortune.
Everyone knew it was a moronic unworkable idea except Sunak and his clowns.
Moronic idea two... forcing scrappage of perfectly good boilers, also in the bin!
Now when Is Sunak and his fellow clowns going to scrap section 24 the totally moronic, unfair, and bordering on illegal tax rip off! Its financially crippling for many and another reason landlords are giving up in droves and tennants are left homeless.
We could all list so many more moronic policies Sunak his implement.
I mean what bunch of clots would push forward so many ridiculous unworkable policies without thinking about the long term implications.
And that's just on the rental sector, so many other moronic policys I can't believe these utter clowns are pushing forward.
PH
20:45 PM, 20th September 2023, About 8 months ago
Anyone now voting Tories ?
Jay
20:52 PM, 20th September 2023, About 8 months ago
Reply to the comment left by john thompson at 20/09/2023 - 20:40They have a lot to answer for, including council tax on bedrooms in HMOs, this is wrong on so many levels. Then there is the student market issue re fixed term etc. This and section 24 etc. is remarkable unbelievable. How could they get it so wrong on so many levels.