Labour to overhaul EPCs ahead of 2030 upgrade deadline

Government says EPCs and the MEES rules that underpin them need updating to improve system.

Labour's Energy Efficiency and Net Zero department has unveiled its plan to overhaul both Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) and the MEES system that underpins them.

The Minimum Energy Efficiency Standard (MEES) Regulations set a minimum energy efficiency level for domestic private rented properties, while EPCs are the certificates that are issued to landlords to prove they have reached them, banded from A to F.

But EPCs in particular have been heavily criticised by many letting agents because they are confusing and difficult to read, and can be wildly inaccurate.

The Department of Energy and Net Zero is to launch a consultation with “proposals for improvements to EPCs to make them more accurate and reliable” while at an industry conference it was revealed by the department’s officials that the MEES regulations are to also get an overhaul.

The plans to improve EPCs and MEES follows the Energy and Net Zero Secretary Ed Miliband’s promise to force landlords to upgrade their properties to a minimum EPC band 'C' by 2030 or face being unable to rent them out.

There is to be significant financial helps to achieve this. Landlords will be given cash to fund the cost of upgrading one property capped at between £15,000 and £30,000 depending on the kind of upgrades being implemented, while portfolio landlords will have to pay half the cost of any subsequent properties, funded via the re-launched Warm Homes: Local Grant scheme.

But properties will have to be within one of the ‘eligible postcodes’ published by the Government, which covers around half of the UK.

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