The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors has cast doubt on the UK’s ambitions to move towards Net Zero - which in turn may throw into doubt strict new EPC targets for the private rental sector.
A RICS survey conducted by YouGov shows that while 34 per cent of homeowners say they would invest in green technology to lower bills in the future, 45 per cent say they will focus on using savings to pay for existing living expenses.
This emphasis on the current cost of living crisis shows that more incentives and cheaper options must be made available. RICS suggests this could a mix of stamp duty and VAT reductions on home improvements.
In the institution’s latest survey, some 51 per cent who confirmed they hadn’t already installed new energy saving measures in their homes blamed the high cost of doing so. And of those, 40 per cent say they’d only consider spending £1,000 to £5,000 on energy improvements.
For the private rental sector, retrofitting appears the only answer if landlords are to meet EPC targets of all new tenancies agreed after 2025 having a minimum EPC rating of ‘C’.
Sam Rees, senior public affairs officer at RICS, says: “The retrofitting of millions of UK homes will be essential to helping to meet our net zero ambitions, however homeowners’ immediate concerns are understandably with the rising cost of living, especially their energy bills. It is important to recognise that retrofitting and the cost of living are not mutually exclusive issues.
“A suitably retrofitted, low-carbon home can help with the long-term challenges of the cost of living and reducing high levels of energy consumption. Achieving this however is not cheap. With the UK Government giving financial support to homeowners to support them with rising energy prices, RICS is calling on the government to extend this support and provide additional financial incentives to homeowners to encourage retrofitting and ultimately helping to tackle the cause of high energy usage.
“Before any significant investment is made on retrofit measures, RICS urges homeowners and the government to ensure a retrofit assessment is undertaken on the property first – ensuring that no unintended consequences occur such as overheating or increased energy demand. This is critical to protecting consumers and RICS is undertaking significant research to support such assessments.”
We're excited to announce that we're working on building a shiny new website for readers of Landlord Today! As part of this process, commenting on articles will be temporarily disabled. We look forward to sharing our new and improved Landlord Today website with you shortly!
.png)
(1).png)
.jpg)
%20(002).png)
