Miliband firms up plans for energy-efficient rented homes, explores grid buildout to ease renewables
Energy Security and Net-Zero Secretary Ed Miliband fleshed out the new UK Government’s plans for the energy transition late last week, indicating a partial U-turn on policies introduced under Rishi Sunak.
Speaking in the House of Commons, Miliband confirmed that the Government will re-instate a requirement for landlords of domestic properties to improve their Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating to ‘C’.
This forthcoming mandate was originally set for 2028 but removed altogether by Sunak last September. Under Labour, it will be reinstated but with a more lenient deadline of 2030, per the Party’s general election manifesto.
Further details are yet to be announced on how compliance will be assessed – and penalties for non-compliance.
Miliband said that having this target in place is key for his Government to achieve commitments to tackle fuel poverty, which currently affects 3.2 people across the UK. He said more energy-efficient rentals “will make a dent in this issue”.
The Climate Change Committee (CCC) has been clear that the rollback from Sunak may have saved landlords money in the near-term, but ultimately makes the UK’s transition to net-zero more risky and costly, with the worst impacts in the 2030s. It also does nothing to support renters through the energy price crisis.
Energy demand reduction from domestic buildings over the past year, the CCC recently warned, have been driven by a milder winter and by people avoiding energy use to manage the cost-of-living crisis. The Committee has said this is not sustainable.
The CCC had recommended that the 2028 EPC mandate for domestic landlords be reinstated to time. It has not yet commented on the potential impact of the two-year delay.
Buildings currently account for around 40% of the UK’s annual emissions.
Miliband is yet to comment on whether Labour will set clearer EPC requirements for rented non-domestic properties – something which industry bodies such as the British Property Federation (BPF) are supporting, as it would give long-term clarity to stakeholders ranging from investors to tenants.
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