Nothing innocuous about any of this if you are a private landlord of an older property. Within the next three years you are expected to 'conform' or at least spend £15k trying to ( with the likelihood of being forced to spend the same again within 5 years). Properties in conservation areas or listed buildings will not escape the requirements. Which given their construction will either cost a multiple of the 'cap' or lead to ruinous damp issues.
There will be many such properties put up for sale before mortgage companies make them unsellable.
A relatively few people are forcing the majority into behaviour change because they think they are 'right'. Eventually the majority will have had enough and then matters could get very messy.
Until very recently we could not vote against this because all parties were in favour of Net Zero nonsense. Only Reform has now committed to ending it.
Is there any more detail on requirements for Landlords? The “C” rating minimum for the EPC looks like it isn’t going to be enough to satisfy them. Mortgage approval and denial is another big stick.
We had an EPC survey done yesterday for buyers of our property. The 'surveyor' told us that things will be getting much worse when the new regime comes out. Most properties will effectively be downgraded (hence higher Council Tax in the future) and the owners will need to produce utility bills so that 'actual' energy costs can be shown in EPC ratings. Houses lower than C probably will become unmarketable and therefore will be bought by the State the same as farms due to IHT. Communism is just around the corner but Starmer keeps our eyes.off the issues at home by trying to start WW3.
A consultation is a notice of intent to implement new policy, designed to shock people into working out how they could comply. Only the most egregious policy flaws are liable to lead to any policy revision, but often these are only attempted once the policy has been seen to fail, when the cycle is repeated.
It’s pretty sad when a cartoon provides the best policy summary.
I am positive Brits have long realized like it, but there’s something wrong with your system. From millions of migrants being brought in, fed, paid and housed…excluding Brits…with no ability to protest.
And when Brits have the audacity to notice what is occurring, they’re prosecuted and jailed!
Yes, it’ll pay handsomely to update a Victorian-era home. First, all the measures will be torn out when the mold make the house inhabitable, hilarity to ensue when the heat pump in only able to heat the home 20° below minimum temperature standard.
All this and the government have said whilst we must save the environment there is no need to consider wildlife especially great crested newts and bat, both of which currently have very strict protection controls.
I suspect they will add a tax to houses based on their EPC - Top rated dwellings, which will almost all be new flats with dismal, tiny windows and unliveable in a warm summer due to the levels of insulation, will get a reduced council tax. Older buildings with wood stoves will be hammered by a tax based on the value of the home.
But we can stop this. Every time you get a politician on tv or radio comment either by calling in or online saying they plan to tax us out of our properties and into flats in the 15 minute cities. Tell them you'll never vote for their party again until they end this green nonsense. If we create enough noise AND we act on it at every election, no matter how "good" the local councillor/MP is, the politicians will toe the line. But we have to act and we have to support people opposing green measures or we'll end up cold an miserable in some urban high rise.
You are right to suggest calling out this nonsense. However the climatemongers rarely make clear that their aim is to create these 15 minute cities, so the vast majority aquiesce in the belief that the politicians know best, not realising the harm coming their way.
In my area, the local council is proposing to meet its local housing needs by demolishing a multistorey car park, and building housing on 3 large open car parks, leaving the town with just one multistorey car park. Increase the population, reduce off road car parking by 75%. In other words force people to give up cars and accept dismal bus and train services or walk/cycle everywhere if you are capable.
The proposals for energy management in housing will significantly reduce the stock of privately rented housing, and de-incentivise house sales. Recipe for disaster from these control freaks in government.
Then they force that private rental property to be sold and who will be there to snap them up? Globalist funds who care little for the area and will mass rent the properties at the highest possible return, which is to the state for migrant housing.
The same is true of those blocks, they aren’t looking to “meet local housing needs”, they will put people in those flats who have the highest points for social housing - Asylum seekers and their families as they have no ties, no jobs and “need” to be put together.
I work in property maintenance, admittedly in a very basic role or general maintenance. 70% of the properties I visit are older than 40 years, most are Victorian. These properties are wholly unsuitable for modernising to meet these crazy proposals without bankrupting levels of investment by the owners. Maybe this is the plan, like farmers & inheritance tax. They want big companies buying up all the land and housing stock.
Maybe I am just a conspiracy nut. But maybe I look at these crazy proposals and see things look very sinister when viewed as a whole.
This is fine until there is a blackout, as I recently found out in rural Ireland. All the new properties were freezing because they all had heat pumps, our older house which still had a fireplace was the only one with any heat! I wrote about it...
When the ordinary person is made aware of this, and begins to understand the implications of this on his budget and lifestyle,his or her vote will go straight to a party whose manifesto will be to repeal the Climate Change Act and all regulations deriving from that, as a first act on gaining office. They will see through the propaganda of the current government and its appendages, such as well known public- funded media, recognising it for the scam it is. Many are already of that view. Consultation, my God, they are so secretive about such, knowing that the ordinary person is not one to scrutinise the formal and specialist notification documentation unless links are provided through the normal public media, which is unlikely given their biased and highly selective reporting. Roll on the knives aka Trump.
I have been responding to the consultation. As a further deterrent, it is designed to be lengthy and obfuscatory, probably in the hope that there would be few responses other than from sock puppet green consultancies who pay people to dream up schemes like this.
There is no root and branch evaluation. That would start with an acknowledgement that EPCs are not fit for purpose and should therefore be abandoned. The second step would be to acknowledge that improving insulation to net zero standards is an unaffordable £2 trillion project that there simply isn't the resource to implement, and ask for advice on how to encourage improvements that gave a rapid payback to get the best return for the available resource. The answer is to let the market work, perhaps supplemented by some proper work on what works and what doesn't so choices are better informed.
Surely the increased risk of blackouts/enforced energy saving means a resilience measure is merited. One where a wood burner would allow a backup heat source (batteries are no good for backup heat but provides other resilience). Also a wood burner, if burning sustainably sourced wood, is net zero emissions.
Thank you David for bringing this to our attention, with much to follow up. I believe EPCs have long lacked credibility, but also expect them to be replaced with something unwieldy and unworkable, which will fall by the wayside or be swept aside by the inevitable backlash to state authoritarianism. It seems to me it would be simpler and more direct for a property buyer to have access (if desired) to the previous year's energy bills, as one important if imperfect benchmark.
We are in the UK caught in a particularly nasty position of high energy costs and housing stock, much of which was designed around cheap coal, that is dismally insulated. Since it is perfectly possible to build energy efficient homes, the long payback times for retrofit measures, shown in the figure, are dispiriting. This state of things was remarked on to me by a Finnish lady resident in north Wales: "People ask me 'but isn't it cold in Finland?', to which I reply 'OUTSIDE, yes'".
All this noted, for the last decade of what I laughingly refer to as a career, until I retired nearly six years ago, I worked as a self-employed gas and heating engineer in the relatively prosperous south-east of England. I was disappointed with an almost total absence of interest in system efficiency. I've often wondered whether it would be different today, given what's happened to energy prices.
A much less troublesome control freakery was imposed here in Scotland a few years ago, namely that house fire alarms must be interlinked such that if one goes off, they all go off. These alarms are ear-splittingly loud so can easily he heard from the most remote part of a typical house. I’ve declined to comply but it could be an irritation when the house is eventually sold. I would take the same approach with any EPC imposition.
When will our politicians wake up and realise that Donald Trump has forced them into a completely new epoch of history? He and his MAGA team are working at breakneck speed to dismantle the USA deep state which has been key to sustaining skulduggeries like the climate change scam, the Covid plandemic and the deliberately-provoked war in Ukraine. He dismisses man-made global warming as a “hoax” and has withdrawn from the Paris Climate Agreement and next the UN IPCC.
I agree that EPCs are not fit for purpose. Kathryn Porter dissected their inadequacies and the failings of policy in a 3 part blog starting here
https://watt-logic.com/2021/01/27/building-energy-performance-epc/
It really should be compulsory reading for those meddling in the policy.
Nothing innocuous about any of this if you are a private landlord of an older property. Within the next three years you are expected to 'conform' or at least spend £15k trying to ( with the likelihood of being forced to spend the same again within 5 years). Properties in conservation areas or listed buildings will not escape the requirements. Which given their construction will either cost a multiple of the 'cap' or lead to ruinous damp issues.
There will be many such properties put up for sale before mortgage companies make them unsellable.
A relatively few people are forcing the majority into behaviour change because they think they are 'right'. Eventually the majority will have had enough and then matters could get very messy.
From across the pond: what exactly is a consultation?
From the comments, it appears that homes meeting the government wants are cold and damn near uninhabitable.
Do not the fine people of the UK understand they have the power to kill this madness at the ballot box?
From afar, it seems many citizens have coasted along, not realizing the metaphorical iceberg is looming.
The government wants heat pumps. But all I see is a grid unable to handle increased loads and thus unable to handle mass heat pump additions.
Perhaps sufficient pain is needed before the people take action.
Until very recently we could not vote against this because all parties were in favour of Net Zero nonsense. Only Reform has now committed to ending it.
Yes, I should have included that info on Reform.
Being in the U.S., if to very foreign to me that all parties would share such a policy.
Perhaps the pain from these policies finally becoming evident is what it will take.
People who are cold and miserable are a potent force for change!
Obviously you are not in California.
It’s worth remembering that the Conservatives started this repulsive legislation and Labour have made it even more onerous.
Is there any more detail on requirements for Landlords? The “C” rating minimum for the EPC looks like it isn’t going to be enough to satisfy them. Mortgage approval and denial is another big stick.
Not sure. I did provide a link to the consultation and I believe someone linked to another document targeting landlords.
We had an EPC survey done yesterday for buyers of our property. The 'surveyor' told us that things will be getting much worse when the new regime comes out. Most properties will effectively be downgraded (hence higher Council Tax in the future) and the owners will need to produce utility bills so that 'actual' energy costs can be shown in EPC ratings. Houses lower than C probably will become unmarketable and therefore will be bought by the State the same as farms due to IHT. Communism is just around the corner but Starmer keeps our eyes.off the issues at home by trying to start WW3.
A consultation is a notice of intent to implement new policy, designed to shock people into working out how they could comply. Only the most egregious policy flaws are liable to lead to any policy revision, but often these are only attempted once the policy has been seen to fail, when the cycle is repeated.
Thank you. From what I’ve seen, those in charge have no intention of allowing NetZero dissent!
The consultation process is best summarised by the cartoon by Matt of the Daily Telegraph, reproduced on Robert Bryce's substack here: https://robertbryce.substack.com/p/big-wind-and-big-solar-are-trying?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=630873&post_id=154912072&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=false&r=2k8m2j&triedRedirect=true
It’s pretty sad when a cartoon provides the best policy summary.
I am positive Brits have long realized like it, but there’s something wrong with your system. From millions of migrants being brought in, fed, paid and housed…excluding Brits…with no ability to protest.
And when Brits have the audacity to notice what is occurring, they’re prosecuted and jailed!
I pray JD Vance’s speech has an effect…
The consultation on measures to force tenants onto the streets, force up rents and expropriate landlords is now running in parallel here
https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/improving-the-energy-performance-of-privately-rented-homes-2025-update
Yes, it’ll pay handsomely to update a Victorian-era home. First, all the measures will be torn out when the mold make the house inhabitable, hilarity to ensue when the heat pump in only able to heat the home 20° below minimum temperature standard.
Along with doubling of the electric bill!
What’s not to love! Another NotZero success!
All this and the government have said whilst we must save the environment there is no need to consider wildlife especially great crested newts and bat, both of which currently have very strict protection controls.
All.this climate nonsense is a load of bollocks.
Thank you, David. I will certainly be participating in the consultation.
I doubt it will stop at shaming.
I suspect they will add a tax to houses based on their EPC - Top rated dwellings, which will almost all be new flats with dismal, tiny windows and unliveable in a warm summer due to the levels of insulation, will get a reduced council tax. Older buildings with wood stoves will be hammered by a tax based on the value of the home.
But we can stop this. Every time you get a politician on tv or radio comment either by calling in or online saying they plan to tax us out of our properties and into flats in the 15 minute cities. Tell them you'll never vote for their party again until they end this green nonsense. If we create enough noise AND we act on it at every election, no matter how "good" the local councillor/MP is, the politicians will toe the line. But we have to act and we have to support people opposing green measures or we'll end up cold an miserable in some urban high rise.
You are right to suggest calling out this nonsense. However the climatemongers rarely make clear that their aim is to create these 15 minute cities, so the vast majority aquiesce in the belief that the politicians know best, not realising the harm coming their way.
In my area, the local council is proposing to meet its local housing needs by demolishing a multistorey car park, and building housing on 3 large open car parks, leaving the town with just one multistorey car park. Increase the population, reduce off road car parking by 75%. In other words force people to give up cars and accept dismal bus and train services or walk/cycle everywhere if you are capable.
The proposals for energy management in housing will significantly reduce the stock of privately rented housing, and de-incentivise house sales. Recipe for disaster from these control freaks in government.
They are turning into ghettos. A social experiment in creating dystopia that is unfortunately succeeding.
Then they force that private rental property to be sold and who will be there to snap them up? Globalist funds who care little for the area and will mass rent the properties at the highest possible return, which is to the state for migrant housing.
The same is true of those blocks, they aren’t looking to “meet local housing needs”, they will put people in those flats who have the highest points for social housing - Asylum seekers and their families as they have no ties, no jobs and “need” to be put together.
I work in property maintenance, admittedly in a very basic role or general maintenance. 70% of the properties I visit are older than 40 years, most are Victorian. These properties are wholly unsuitable for modernising to meet these crazy proposals without bankrupting levels of investment by the owners. Maybe this is the plan, like farmers & inheritance tax. They want big companies buying up all the land and housing stock.
Maybe I am just a conspiracy nut. But maybe I look at these crazy proposals and see things look very sinister when viewed as a whole.
This is fine until there is a blackout, as I recently found out in rural Ireland. All the new properties were freezing because they all had heat pumps, our older house which still had a fireplace was the only one with any heat! I wrote about it...
We don't have that luxury, living in a smokeless zone.....
When the ordinary person is made aware of this, and begins to understand the implications of this on his budget and lifestyle,his or her vote will go straight to a party whose manifesto will be to repeal the Climate Change Act and all regulations deriving from that, as a first act on gaining office. They will see through the propaganda of the current government and its appendages, such as well known public- funded media, recognising it for the scam it is. Many are already of that view. Consultation, my God, they are so secretive about such, knowing that the ordinary person is not one to scrutinise the formal and specialist notification documentation unless links are provided through the normal public media, which is unlikely given their biased and highly selective reporting. Roll on the knives aka Trump.
I have been responding to the consultation. As a further deterrent, it is designed to be lengthy and obfuscatory, probably in the hope that there would be few responses other than from sock puppet green consultancies who pay people to dream up schemes like this.
There is no root and branch evaluation. That would start with an acknowledgement that EPCs are not fit for purpose and should therefore be abandoned. The second step would be to acknowledge that improving insulation to net zero standards is an unaffordable £2 trillion project that there simply isn't the resource to implement, and ask for advice on how to encourage improvements that gave a rapid payback to get the best return for the available resource. The answer is to let the market work, perhaps supplemented by some proper work on what works and what doesn't so choices are better informed.
Surely the increased risk of blackouts/enforced energy saving means a resilience measure is merited. One where a wood burner would allow a backup heat source (batteries are no good for backup heat but provides other resilience). Also a wood burner, if burning sustainably sourced wood, is net zero emissions.
Thank you David for bringing this to our attention, with much to follow up. I believe EPCs have long lacked credibility, but also expect them to be replaced with something unwieldy and unworkable, which will fall by the wayside or be swept aside by the inevitable backlash to state authoritarianism. It seems to me it would be simpler and more direct for a property buyer to have access (if desired) to the previous year's energy bills, as one important if imperfect benchmark.
We are in the UK caught in a particularly nasty position of high energy costs and housing stock, much of which was designed around cheap coal, that is dismally insulated. Since it is perfectly possible to build energy efficient homes, the long payback times for retrofit measures, shown in the figure, are dispiriting. This state of things was remarked on to me by a Finnish lady resident in north Wales: "People ask me 'but isn't it cold in Finland?', to which I reply 'OUTSIDE, yes'".
All this noted, for the last decade of what I laughingly refer to as a career, until I retired nearly six years ago, I worked as a self-employed gas and heating engineer in the relatively prosperous south-east of England. I was disappointed with an almost total absence of interest in system efficiency. I've often wondered whether it would be different today, given what's happened to energy prices.
Reform have stated that they intend to scrap EPCs if elected in 2029. Hopefully this will happen.
A much less troublesome control freakery was imposed here in Scotland a few years ago, namely that house fire alarms must be interlinked such that if one goes off, they all go off. These alarms are ear-splittingly loud so can easily he heard from the most remote part of a typical house. I’ve declined to comply but it could be an irritation when the house is eventually sold. I would take the same approach with any EPC imposition.
When are these politicians going to accept that there is no point whatsoever in trying to reduce “carbon” emissions? Here’s a good exposure of how little climate change nutter Biden with $hundreds of billions at his disposal achieved in “tackling the climate crisis” in his four years as President: https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2025-1-19-report-how-did-the-biden-administration-do-on-solving-climate-change.
When will our politicians wake up and realise that Donald Trump has forced them into a completely new epoch of history? He and his MAGA team are working at breakneck speed to dismantle the USA deep state which has been key to sustaining skulduggeries like the climate change scam, the Covid plandemic and the deliberately-provoked war in Ukraine. He dismisses man-made global warming as a “hoax” and has withdrawn from the Paris Climate Agreement and next the UN IPCC.
Our Net Zero-obsessed, mRNA vax-obsessed, Ukraine-warmongering Uniparty politicians need to come to their senses and face up to the new reality: https://theupheaval.substack.com/p/american-strong-gods.
Big brother is watching YOU!
When I worked for a Housing Charity, we had to get EPCs done for all our properties.
They were more useless than a useless thing in a Uselessness Competition.
Great for those who got paid for producing meaningless and useless pieces of paper.
https://open.substack.com/pub/iainhunter/p/the-grand-solar-minimum-is-here?r=127bdu&utm_medium=ios
This post and the Tom Nelson podcast linked from it are well worth reading
/ listening to. As it suggests, at least listen to the conclusion at around 59’.
We are going to need gas and diesel.
David,
Site energy basis hides a multitude of issues. Source energy basis looks bad with continued fossil and Drax generation and even "badder' with CCS.