Sunak scraps Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) targets

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.

‘Those plans will be scrapped’

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.

‘Landlords will not be required to invest substantial sums’

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.”

Decision to bin EPC ratings for rented homes

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.”

‘Essential part of a home’s quality’

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.”

‘Government’s dithering over these standards in recent years’

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.

2030 deadline for buying diesel- and petrol-powered cars

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.”