At the current pace of energy efficiency improvements, it will take landlords another 18 years to bring all privately rented homes in England and Wales up to an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating of A to C, according to data from Hamptons.
This timeline extends well beyond the government’s ambition of a 2030 target, though it marks a vast improvement from the 89-year projection based on 2016 rates.
The acceleration in upgrades is partly due to landlords making improvements in anticipation of now-scrapped Conservative energy efficiency plans. Despite this, the current rate of progress remains insufficient to meet the expected 2030 regulations, which would require around 340,000 rental homes to upgrade annually.
In 2024, only about 115,000 homes are expected to meet the necessary EPC standards, indicating that the rate of upgrades needs to triple to stay on target.
So far this year, 39% of EPC assessments on rental properties resulted in a higher band rating, although this improvement rate is below levels seen before the 2018 requirement for properties to achieve at least an EPC E rating.
Over half (55%) of rental homes that received new EPC certificates this year achieved a C rating or better, compared to 48% of owner-occupied homes.
Most homes improving their EPC ratings this year moved from a D to a C rating, with 50% of previously D-rated homes reaching at least a C upon reassessment. However, only 9% of homes previously rated as C managed to achieve a B rating or above, highlighting the difficulty of significant upgrades.
Despite progress, a small percentage of rental properties are unlikely to meet the A-C rating threshold. Between 3-4% of rented homes are expected to fall short of this standard, down from 7-8% before a mid-2022 change in EPC methodology. The new methodology benefits electrically heated homes, often pushing them into higher EPC bands.
Older, cheaper properties in the North of England are particularly challenging to upgrade, and these homes tend to generate higher rental yields. In 2024, EPC D-rated homes averaged a gross yield of 7.6%, compared to 5.5% for newly built, EPC A-rated homes. EPC E-rated properties achieved the highest yields at 7.9%, but their value and construction often make achieving an EPC C rating unviable or impossible.
Aneisha Beveridge, head of research at Hamptons, said: “Successive changes to proposed energy efficiency rules have shifted the goalposts for landlords, some of whom face costs which can run into tens of thousands of pounds.
“Despite this, many investors have continued to improve the energy efficiency of their rental homes and we’re currently on track to see 100% of rental homes where an EPC A-C is viable, reach that rating within a generation.
“To meet the government’s 2030 target, the same number of homes will need to see energy upgrades over the next five years as we’ve seen make improvements in the last 30 years.
“While a requirement for all rental homes to achieve an EPC A-C rating by 2030 is achievable at a stretch, landlords need adequate time and resources to meet it. It is essential landlords receive complete clarity on this target this year.”
Until someone addresses how epc reports are produced, especially in relation to electrical heating, what is the point?
You can install A or B rated heaters only to get an E rated epc!
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We took out heaters that Noah rejected for the Ark due to their age, and put in new electric ones, just to be told as they were not High-Heat retention storage heaters, they made no difference… They were individually programmable, so you can program them to come on in the living room at 5pm, bedrooms at 9pm or whatever, to keep the room heated when you need it, not constantly at 20 degrees or whatever…
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18 years to get to ‘C’ rating??? You having a laugh. Get a proper trade person and they will have it sorted within a day or less!!! And stop adding high reverse hand donations to the landlords bills and it won’t be costly for the landlord either.
Not that costly to get to a C rating, if the property was half decent in the first place – Hamptons stop panicking you have 6 years to sort it out !!!
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I suppose you can put a ground/air sourced heating system complete with oversized pipes/rads in a morning and double glazing in the afternoon and only charge £500 for that.
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Populism: the act of using the 1% to anger the 99%.
18 million properties need major works to comply, we don’t have the manpower or money., whilst also building those 1.5 m houses.
Maybe they could fix the potholes first as a building project.
But like the mess the country is in expect the fudged u turn to be left until the last minute.
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Property Poke in the Eye is slightly naive. In a micro sense, perhaps his opinion has legs – but in a macro sense, the argument has no legs at all. I’ve been quietly mumbling for some years now that a staggered approach is needed. Get to D first, then push on. Propertymark seem to have their heads in the sand over this. All of my Landlords are perfectly willing to take the various measures but only in proportionate steps. Will this new Government allow that? I doubt it. The sledgehammer is behind Reeves back, and shes about to bring it out.
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