EPC Deadline Put Back But Still No Guidance Yet on What to Do to Meet EPC Grade C

So now we know. The deadline to reach grade C for all residential let properties has been put back a bit, that is at least good news.

EPC Deadline Put Back But No Guidance Yet on What to Do to Meet EPC Grade C

This is part of the UK’s self-imposed and unique drive to get to Net Carbon zero by 2050, (or to impoverish the British nation faster than any other country, as the climate change sceptics, might put it).

As all residential landlords know, EPC grades run from A to G. Landlords must achieve a grade C by 2028. If they don’t, they cannot let the property at all, unless they can prove they have already spent £10,000 trying to achieve that goal.  

As is the modern way, there are of course fines for non-compliance and failing to keep Greta happy. The new fines will now apparently reach as high as £30,000 for letting without being at least grade C, come 2028.

A delay was always inevitable. The government put out a consultation back in 2021 but the results are still yet to be published. That consultation originally proposed all rental properties should be EPC rated C by 2025, so this extension buys three more years.

The government thinks lots of tenants are interested in what grade a property is, but we have found it is pretty far down their list of priorities, which is confirmed by actual surveys too.

And so, we continue to await further details on what the government’s plans are.

If their plans are for us all to commit to lower bills, then replacing older, (allegedly – see footnote), inefficient gas boilers with new more efficient ones would enhance an EPC score, but if the government puts carbon emissions above all else, then moving to reward electric heating by way of a heat pump should be heavily rewarded instead. But this will increase tenants’ energy costs because everyone knows the pumps don’t heat a house very well, even if you spend a lot more cash on insulation.

It is impossible to know what to do until the results of the consultation are known.

Essentially, we have a crazy situation where landlords have a deadline of 2028 with fines for non-compliance, but because the consultation findings are still not known, they don’t have a clue what to do in terms of which big ticket item to go for.

This matters a lot.

Heat pumps and solar panels are certainly big-ticket items that Greta and the government are keen on. But right now, under the current EPC rating system, putting in a modern air source heat pump in a Victorian semi-detached four-bedroom house to replace a modern main gas heating system would drop the EPC score from something like a D down to an E.

So, landlords continue to sit on their hands.

Also, from the tax point of view, replacing a gas boiler with another one is a revenue expense and can be claimed in the current tax year. But replacing with a heat pump is a capital expense that can only be claimed on sale.

The government is pushing a target to install 600,000 heat pumps a year by 2028. Obviously, with the current grading system making it likely that putting one in would actually drop a landlord’s EPC grade, no sensible landlord is going to do this any time soon.

From 2035, the government is saying all homeowners will have no choice but to replace gas boilers like-for like, making heat pump installations effectively mandatory, though old gas boilers can still be used, if they were installed before that date.

Until 2025, households can get a £5,000 grant to assist with the cost of installing a heat pump, which will normally cost at least £12,000 for the average house. But as the goal is to achieve an EPC score of C, no landlord is ever going to take this bribe if it makes their EPC grade fall further, so they cannot let their property any more. Duh!

Much the same applies for solar panels, which cost around £6,000 for the average house, which also will often not justify the landlord’s investment either.

EPC Grading – Clarity Needed

The whole way the EPC grading and scoring system works is not aligned with government policy to go for Net Zero. It needs to change.

So, we wait and wait and wait.

It is like a football coach sending a team out and telling them he wants to win, but having no plan about how he is going to do that – no tactics, no formation, no guidelines.

Such a coach would be sacked in no time at all.

It is pathetic.

All that the government ministers and all the opposition leaders can do is tell us “the science (on climateaggeddon), just like Covid and lockdowns/ “vaccines” is settled”.

It is worth me saying here what cannot be said in most mainstream news. And that is that many scientists are not convinced that carbon causes global warming either and see “The Science” – (“the science” is the new God) – as not proven.

They also see the drive to Net Zero as a kind of cult, (akin to the Covid Cult or the Covid Vaccine Cult) as a new exercise in impoverishing the world’s population, whilst controlling the non-elite’s carbon footprint via digital monitoring and surveillance systems, which they think is the real point of the exercise anyway. Smart meters and smart cities are part of this, of course.

Having read WEF head honcho, Klaus Schwab’s book, “The Great Reset” and the regular and very bonkers burblings of still-at-large, Tony Blair, I think they are probably on to something here.   

Footnote:

This article from me from a few years ago reported that new boilers were not as efficient as claimed. It is same as the Volkswagen car emissions scandal all over again, it just got less attention, as it did not fit the narrative:

Boiler Efficiency – Letting Focus

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