Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what (a) support her Department provides and (b) regulations apply to landlords to enable them to lift their properties up to a C energy rating.

The Energy Efficiency (Private Rented Property) (England and Wales) Regulations 2015 require that, since April 2018, domestic and non-domestic private landlords ensure their properties have an energy efficiency rating of at least an E at the point of issuing a new tenancy or renewing or extending an existing one.

Landlords are expected to self-fund improvements to bring their property up to standard, subject to cost-effectiveness tests, or file an exemption if one applies. The regulations set separate cost-effectiveness test for landlords of domestic and non-domestic property. Landlords of properties below EPC Band E are free to explore third-party funding options, such as local authority grant funding, Green Deal finance and the Energy Company Obligation (ECO) scheme for low-income, vulnerable and fuel poor households.

The Clean Growth Strategy sets out the Government’s intention to look at a long-term trajectory for energy performance standards across the private rented sector. We aim to get as many private rented homes as possible upgraded to EPC Band C by 2030, where practical, cost-effective and affordable. We are currently considering policy options to achieve this and are planning to consult over the winter. On 15 October 2019, the Government published a consultation on a future target of EPC B by 2030 for minimum energy efficiency standards in non-domestic rented buildings.