According to a survey conducted by Landbay, a quarter of landlords will only make changes to their property if legislation requires them to, while 13% do not plan to do anything
Around 74% of landlords think it was the right decision for the government to get rid of the proposal that all rental properties must have an energy performance certificate (EPC) rating of at least C by 2028, according to a research.
According to a survey conducted by Landbay, a quarter of landlords will only make changes to their property if legislation requires them to, while 13% do not plan to do anything.
Of those who have properties with a low EPC rating, 62% plan to upgrade to a C. Around 42% said they would make changes at some point while a fifth intend to improve their property as soon as they can.
Landbay said this was a change in attitude since the minimum requirement was scrapped by the PM in September.
Prior to this, 73% of landlords said they planned to improve the rating of their properties to a C, while 39% wanted to wait until the deadline to make changes. Nearly a third intended to upgrade their property sooner.
Not all landlords agreed with the government’s change of plans, as a quarter said they were not in favour of the minimum energy performance certificate requirements being removed.
They believed it was required as a social and environmental duty.
Rob Stanton, business development director at Landbay, said: 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.
Stanton said: Some landlords said they would be encouraged to update their property if there was more government assistance like easy accessibility to grants. More than 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.
