According to the Telegraph, Ed Miliband’s reaction to the rise of Reform is to press ahead with plans that will require “all private rental homes to have an energy performance certificate (EPC) of C or higher by 2030”. Sympathy for the putative beneficiaries of skyrocketing house prices and rents has of course dissipated faster than the power from Spanish electrical socket. But squeezing an unpopular constituency will not create any benefit for their tenants and will have many entirely predictable ‘unintended’ consequences. Another Net Zero policy is headed for crisis.
The cost of all these upgrades will be a whopping £36 billion, reports the Telegraph. The average EPC grades within local authorities of the UK have been compiled by UK Finance, which the Telegraph describes as a “banking lobby group”, in a comprehensive survey of rented homes’ EPC ratings that do not meet ‘Grade C’ or above. Near the top of the list, rented homes within the Cotswold district of Gloucestershire, for example, achieved an average EPC Grade E. Remedying this shortcoming will cost the landlords of 3,124 rented homes between £16,890 and £34,000 apiece.
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