About 14 million homes in the UK fall below EPC C, which is the planned legal Minimum Energy Efficiency Standard for rental properties, and the planned legal average for mortgage lenders’ loan books.
Whatever your thoughts on EPCs - and we know there are lots of issues with them, having done our Domestic Energy Assessor training - this is symbolic of a huge set of problems:
1. Our homes are the oldest and leakiest in Europe, which cool 3 x faster than homes in Germany and Norway
2. Homes are a massive contributor to carbon emissions - they are responsible for an estimated 14% of Greenhouse Gas Emissions and if this doesn’t change, this will hold us back from achieving Net Zero 2050
3. It’s going to be expensive and hugely complex to solve the problem. If estimates are correct that it would cost on average c. £10,000 per property to improve energy efficiency to an acceptable and compliant level, then it’s a £140 billion problem. Many experts believe it will cost much more than £10,000 per property to retrofit the UK’s properties.
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