Fewer landlords plan to make energy efficiency improvements since the government’s U-turn on raising EPC targets, it has been claimed.

This follows a new survey by Landbay which reveals a change in attitude towards investing in upgrades to properties. Before the EPC minimum requirement was scrapped in September, 73% of landlords intended to bring a property up to a C rating. Of these, 39% would have waited until nearer the proposed 2028 deadline and 34% planned to make improvements sooner.

Now, only 62% of those with a lower rated property intend to upgrade to a C rating while it is not a legal requirement. Of these, 42% will make changes at some point in the future, 20% intend to upgrade as soon as possible, 25% will only make changes if legislation requires them to in the future, and 13% won’t do anything.

Decision welcomed

The mortgage platform found that three-quarters of landlords (74%) welcome the decision to scrap the proposal, largely due to the expense and difficulty of retrofitting older properties. Conversely, one in four landlords (26%) aren’t in favour of removing minimum requirements and support the need for energy efficient housing as a social and environmental duty.

Rob Stanton (main picture, inset), business development director at Landbay, says: “We applaud the sentiment around trying to improve the energy efficiency of buildings, but we also need to be realistic.

"The UK has a vast amount of older housing that is difficult to retrofit and will be expensive. Over half of rental properties in the UK are D rated or lower so landlords now have some breathing space to plan without a looming deadline.”