Deadline to Be Delayed for Landlords to Improve Energy Efficiency

2030 ban of new petrol and diesel cars remains

Undated photo of a heat pump. (Octopus Energy/Handout via PA)

Private landlords in England and Wales will be given extra time to make their properties more energy efficient, Housing Secretary Michael Gove has confirmed.

Mr. Gove said the government plans to move “away from the strict deadline” given the pressure on housing, and more details will be announced at a later date.

But ministers will press ahead with another net-zero policy of banning the sales of new petrol and diesel cars in 2030, he said.

It comes after Mr. Gove warned against “treating the cause of the environment as a religious crusade” over the weekend.

Asked about the government’s plan to phase out gas boilers by 2035, Mr. Gove told BBC Radio 4’s “Today” programme on Tuesday that it’s “certainly the case that phasing out gas boilers, and at the moment moving towards heat pumps, does impose costs” on individuals.

He said ministers are considering ways to mitigate the impact of the government’s drive to decarbonising home heating, noting that they are reconsidering the deadline for landlords to improve energy efficiency.

Breathing Space

Under current rules, a private rental home must have an Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) rating of E or above. In a draft plan published for consultation in late 2020, the government proposed the minimum energy performance standard should be changed to an EPC C rating.

From April 1, 2025, all newly-let homes will have to meet the new standard unless the cost would exceed £10,000, private rental properties already in the market by that time will have another three years to comply, according to the plan.

The government is yet to publish a response to the consultation feedback, though a private member’s bill proposed by the Liberal Democrats is seeking to mandate the change from Dec. 31, 2028.

The existing deadlines mean private landlords have to “move faster than others in order to meet energy efficiency standards,” Mr. Gove told the BBC.

“I think that we’re asking a little too much of them and therefore we will give them a greater degree of breathing space,” he said.

It’s understood that ministers will take into account an upcoming review of the EPC system and updated rental regulations before making a new deadline.

According to theecoexperts.co.uk, a website about how to reduce carbon emissions, the average cost of buying and installing an air source heat pump is £10,000 to install an air source heat pump.

But the average cost of a ground source heat pump would be a few times higher, around  £24,000 if it’s installed horizontally and £49,000 for a vertically installed one, the website said.

Homeowners can save between £4,000 to £6,000 by applying funds from a Boiler Upgrade Scheme, but the £450 million government package can only cover some 90,000 homes, while the government’s advisory body on emissions targets said in 2019 that almost all 29 million homes in the UK need to be retrofitted with low-carbon heating systems.

Ministers ‘Committed’ to Banning New Fossil Fuel Cars

Asked whether the plan to ban the sale of petrol and diesel cars by 2030 also imposes excessive costs on people, Mr. Gove said, “No it shouldn’t.”

“We’re committed to maintaining our policy of ensuring that by 2030 there are no new petrol and diesel cars being sold,” he said.

He dismissed speculations that the policy may be ditched, saying he understood it would remain in place.

The government has been under pressure to clarify its climate policies after London’s controversial expansion of the Ultra Low Emission Zone (Ulez) was blamed for Labour’s defeat in last week’s Uxbridge and South Ruislip by-election.

Senior Tory Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg said the by-election showed that people want the government to get rid of “unpopular, expensive green policies” while former Cop26 climate summit president Alok Sharma said it would be “self-defeating for any political party to seek to break the political consensus on this vital agenda.”

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said on Monday that he wants to achieve net zero “in a proportionate and pragmatic way that doesn’t unnecessarily give people more hassle and more costs in their lives,” triggering MPs from the All Party Parliamentary Group on Climate to warn him against sending “mixed signals.”