The property industry has told Energy Minister Miatta Fahnbulleh (pictured) that landlords, letting agents and other players within the private rented sector are ‘seriously concerned’ about Labour’s plans to force rental properties to reach an EPC band C minimum by 2030.

The comments came during a face-to-face roundtable, where it was highlighted that landlords will have to pay up to £15,000 to achieve the looming minimum EPC level.

The meeting focused on barriers to those plans, with a number of serious issues being raised by both the National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA) and other leading organisations from the private rented sector.

The landlord membership group reports that these included the ‘unreasonable’ or ‘unrealistic’ nature of the 2030 deadline, a lack of certainty over the way in which EPCs are calculated and precisely what landlords need to do to meet revised targets, the shortage of skilled tradespeople and uncertainty about enforcement.

The NRLA also asked the Government for incentives such as greater tax efficiency for landlords carrying out works and suggested certain improvements could be treated as revenue/allowable expenses for tax purposes, which the Minister agreed to discuss with the Treasury.

This was a positive opportunity for us to engage directly with the Minister.”

NRLA Policy Director Chris Norris, who attended the meeting, said: “This was a positive opportunity for us to engage directly with the Minister, who, for her part was keen to encourage an open dialogue, not least on what the timetable for change could and should look like.

“Deadlines are only effective if they are reasonably achievable and, with around 2.5 million rental homes currently graded as D-G on their EPC, it is clear that what is currently on the table at present is not. Even if the improvements were fully funded and upgrades started tomorrow, we still don’t have the tradespeople to carry out the work.

“Pulling thousands, if not tens of thousands of homes from the rental market if they failed to hit the 2030 deadline would have a devastating impact on supply and affordability for tenants – the very people this legislation wants to support, so it is clear more work is needed on these timelines.”