From February 2025, the UK government is consulting on raising the minimum energy efficiency standards (MEES) in the residential private rented sector in an attempt to lower carbon emissions, improve energy efficiency, deal with fuel consumption issues and make homes easier to heat. This ‘Privately Rented Energy Performance Consultation‘ remains open until 2 May 2025.
The Privately Rented Energy Performance Consultation is separate to a consultation (released in December 2024) on reforms to the Energy Performance of Buildings Framework, which considers using new metrics for assessing energy performance (‘EPB Framework Consultation’).
Privately Rented Energy Performance Consultation
Since 2018, domestic properties must have an EPC rating of ‘E’ or above for a landlord to be allowed to rent it out to private, residential tenant.
The government’s preferred approach in the Privately Rented Energy Performance Consultation would be to require residential landlords to achieve the equivalent of an EPC rating of ‘C’ before rented out.
The proposed higher standard of rating ‘C’ would apply to newly granted residential tenancies from 2028 and all existing tenancies would be required to comply by 2030.
Change of EPC metrics
The separate EPB Framework Consultation has suggested changes to the metrics used to produce an EPC. EPCs are often criticised for being an imperfect measure of the energy efficiency of a building. Proposals for new metrics suggest using standards set against either the ‘fabric performance metric’, ‘heating system metric’ or ‘smart readiness metric’.
Using new metrics in this way would require landlords to:
- improve the building’s heat retention,
- reduce the energy required to operate the building’s heating, and
- enable the occupier to optimise energy use and reduce running costs.
The government recognises that this is just one approach to utilising new metrics, and the EPC Framework Consultation seeks views on alternative approaches.
Comment
These consultations will be of interest to the private rented domestic sector as residential properties may require extensive (and expensive) retro-fit works to meet the proposed higher standards. Landlords of commercial properties will watch with interest to see whether similar proposals for higher MEES requirements are put forward for commercial lettings.
This may also be a welcome move away from the existing EPC metric of an energy efficiency rating, which measures the modelled cost of energy efficiency ratings and results in higher EPC ratings for fossil fuel-heated properties.
