EPC requirements to be targeted as red tape ‘consigned to history’

Swathes of regulation could be “consigned to history” under the government’s Growth Plan, including new requirements for energy efficiency in rented homes. In her keynote address to delegates at the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham this week, prime minister Liz Truss said: “By the end of the year, all EU red tape will be consigned to history. Instead, we will ensure that all regulation is pro-business and pro-growth.” While the bonfire of inherited EU rules has been heavily trailed, it is understood other regulation deemed “anti-growth” is also being looked at by ministers. Among those are minimum energy efficiency standards changes, which will compel private landlords to bring their properties up to EPC C by 2025 for new lettings, and 2028 otherwise. The government has estimated that necessary improvements would cost £4,700 per property. According to the government’s own consultation, there are around 3.2m PRS properties in England and Wales with an EPC rating of D or below. That would equate to a £15bn cost. Currently the costs incurred by landlords are capped at £3,500 but that is expected to be raised to £10,000 – meaning the total cost could be higher than £30bn. Buy-to-let landlords who do not meet the current minimum standards can be served with a compliance notice and issued a fine of up to £5,000 per property by the local authority. From 2025 these fines are planned to increase to £30,000 per property. Changes to the legislation have yet to be finalised, with sources within government saying it would be a comparatively simple thing to stall or scrap the changes. Read more: EG INVESTIGATION: Landlords face £16bn EPC time bomb Truss told delegates her government would be “getting rid of those blockages and barriers… and literally get Britain moving”. She added: “We must level up our country – in a Conservative way” by “cutting taxes and simplifying red tape”, adding: “That is what our investment zones will do.” The prime minister has made it clear she does not want the number of investment zones to be capped, saying the option to designate a low-tax, low-regulation area should be open to any local authority that wants it.   Regulations to introduce the zones are likely to be folded into the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill, which could be retooled as a Growth Bill, steered through parliament by new minister Dehenna Davison.   Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng said investment zones will be a crucial step in reigniting growth. “We know it is our towns and cities which drive much of our economic growth today – my job now is to free that potential,” he said. “This starts with investment zones.”  Kwarteng added that the government “will liberalise planning rules, releasing land and accelerating development”. “We will cut taxes for business in these zones. We will accelerate tax reliefs for new structures and buildings,” he said.  Elsewhere at the conference, Treasury minister Chris Philp was criticised for saying he was in favour of liberalising planning while accusing the Labour-led Croydon Council of “handing out planning permissions so freely” in a resurfaced tweet from 2019. Philp said his Croydon South constituency was an example of “inappropriate places” for development. Planning lawyer Simon Ricketts tweeted: “This is why any attempt at planning reform currently bites the dust and why the current system is so such a struggle: ‘Ooh but not in my constituency’, time and time again.”   To send feedback, e-mail piers.wehner@eg.co.uk or tweet @PiersWehner or @EGPropertyNews Image © James McCauley/Shutterstock