Changes to EPC

It is apparent that there are a number of issues with Energy Performance Certificates and that some of these are being recognised.

Over the past few years the government has published a number of papers and held consultations to develop an effective structure to change them. Indeed, one of the published strategies is to recognise that there are limitations to EPC certificates.

The strategy

There are three elements to the government’s approach;

-       Getting more accurate, reliable and trusted EPCs

-       Engaging people and encouraging them to take action

-       Making EPCs more accessible through better access to data

Overall this seems like a fairly slow-moving process, however, the potential is for further changes that may impact on you, for example a reduction in the validity period from ten years – which could result in more regular testing.

Accuracy and reliability

One area the government are keen to improve is the accuracy and reliability of EPC certificates, with the current process vulnerable to errors, either accidental or deliberate. This is important, as they are a key tool in the longer-term plan to achieve net-zero green-house gases.

There is concern about the current abuse of and none compliance of the system, with research (albeit from 2013) showing that only 25% of landlords were complying. From a landlord perspective one longer term change is the potential increase in the level of fine for none compliance.

Engaging people

There is a recognition that most people, whether that be landlords, tenants or home-owners have not really engaged with EPC’s. The government’s own research shows that only 6% of people knew the EPC rating of their property, and, worse, only 2% had actually made a change as a result.

The aim is to get people to understand and work with EPCs, rather than just regard them as a requirement. A positive potential outcome of this could be to see the certificates used as a tool to reduce energy consumption – lowering costs and impact on the environment. This might ultimately involve changes to the way they are calculated to produce more realistic real-world performance.

However, this is the area where the government is considering reducing the length of time the certificates are valid for – potentially further increasing costs for landlords.

Accessibility

The third and final theme is improving the accessibility of EPC’s. This is primarily a data driven initiative which is aimed at making the system more transparent and easy to understand. One example of this is potentially giving you the ability to check that the inputs were correct in the first place, as well as providing more accessible complaints procedure.

One key outcome of this is to make the data more accessible so that people can more easily make changes based on this information.

 Changes and challenges

There is a lot to take in, on top of the challenge of achieving a ‘C’ rating, there is the potential for numerous and ongoing changes to the way certificates are produced, communicated and enforced.