Tax incentives required for EPC improvements

Tax incentives required for EPC improvements

0:04 AM, 16th August 2023, About 9 months ago 3

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An industry body is urging the chancellor to introduce tax incentives for energy improvements for PRS homes.

Propertymark has written a letter to Jeremy Hunt suggesting changes to the tax system that will incentivise landlords to improve energy efficiency ratings.

Around two-thirds of privately rented properties in England and Wales fall below EPC C.

Measures in current form will not be achievable

Individual landlords currently pay income tax on their rental properties at the same rates of tax as other earned income.

Landlords may deduct costs of managing the property, legal fees, replacement furniture, insurance, utility bills, ground rent and maintenance and upkeep – but not energy-saving improvements.

Timothy Douglas, head of policy and campaigns at Propertymark says: “A simplified exemptions regime and additional financial support must be made available to property owners otherwise the measures in their current form will not be achievable and that would mean further reductions in the supply of rented accommodation available.”

One-size fits all policy

According to the Committee on Climate Change, the UK housing stock is amongst the least energy efficient in Europe.

Propertymark says: “Decision makers across the UK must move away from a one-size fits all policy and develop energy efficiency proposals that work with the different ages, conditions, and sizes of properties.

“This way grants and funding support can be targeted on the archetype of a property rather than its tenure.”

The full letter to the Chancellor can be seen here


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Comments

reader

10:05 AM, 16th August 2023, About 9 months ago

Be careful what you wish for!
If you set the concept into the present anti landlord regime the result could be more pain from J Hunt.

Beaver

11:21 AM, 16th August 2023, About 9 months ago

"Individual landlords currently pay income tax on their rental properties at the same rates of tax as other earned income" isn't strictly true. Landlords that are out of the 20% tax band can't deduct all their finance costs which results in some breaking even or making a loss on their properties. Clearly these landlords are not going to be buying photovoltaics for their tenants to have a nice life without dramatically increasing rents!

It is true that you can't offset improvements against rents so you have to raise capital to do that. Capital costs are going up and many landlords are leveraged. So that's not going to happen in the majority of cases.

Also we all know that the EPC system is not fit for purpose either from the perspective of helping tenants understand their energy bills or from the point of view of reducing carbon emissions. But if we assume that it does get sorted out at some point and Band A, B or C finally get to mean something then the only way you will manage to finance the improvements is by letting landlords invest their pensions in that. Presently you can't invest your pension in residential property.

Robin Pearce

15:26 PM, 16th August 2023, About 9 months ago

1000s of tenants face eviction due to unattainable EPC targets on rental properties.
Example: To obtain Band C on some ground floor flats including one of the ones I rent out, will involve digging up the entire floor & insulating it.
So the tenant will need evicting, no rent for some weeks & £thousands spent. Most landlords will just sell up. As I shall.
Yet there's a serious fundamental flaw using EPC software as it is currently programmed.
Because the government's aim is net zero by 2035. But EPC software doesn't even take into account electrically heated properties are lower carbon footprint than gas because around 45% of electricity is now generated from renewable sources.
So at present in many cases gas heated flats have a higher carbon footprint than electrically heated yet have a better EPC rating because the EPC software is geared up to running costs, not carbon footprint.
So there'll be massive upheaval based on wrongly programmed software !
Now add in this factor.. Legal net migration 606k last year +illegals = 5000 new homes needed very week !!!
Most people migrating to live in the UK move into rental property when they arrive. So this government are boosting the demand to an unprecedented level whilst throttling the supply with their war on private landlords. Crisis looming
I wrote to my MP who forwarded my concerns to Lord Callanan who's overseeing all this.
Who then replied with a generic letter with no mention of adjusting EPC software to allow for green electricity !
I've since heard they will probably adjust EPC algorhythm for renewable component of Electricity. Is so then all electric flats should be bumped up by one or two EPC bands. We'll see

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