Delays to strengthening MEES will hit private rented sector hard

Levelling Up secretary Michael Gove MP has indicated that there might be a relaxation of the proposed Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards (MEES) in the private rented sector, potentially delaying the deadline to 2030.

In early 2021, the government consulted on proposals that would see MEES in the private rented sector increased to meet Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) band C for new tenancies from 2025 and all tenancies from 2028. Currently, privately rented homes have to meet EPC band E to be let.

However, there have been signs that the interim regulation on new tenancies from 2025 would be scrapped, causing a further delay to this deadline, to 2030. This could mean the more than 2.4 million privately rented homes in England that currently fall below EPC band C could be facing higher bills for longer.

New analysis from the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit has found that implementing the proposals in 2030 for all tenancies could cost bill payers more than £1.4bn under a medium gas price scenario. It would also mean landlords face a cliff edge for all properties in 2030, with competition for the workforce to do upgrade work on homes.

Commenting on the analysis, Jess Ralston, energy analystat the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, said:“The government looks to be taking the side of landlords over the millions who’ve been stuck in cold, rental accommodation during a gas crisis that’s forced them to shell out hundreds on gas bills to try to keep warm. The main culprit here is the government – consulting on the changes in 2021 yet still not doing anything about this problem, even during a gas crisis, seems frankly irresponsible.  

“This is a net zero policy that would save ordinary people who rent money on bills, and could have been phased in gradually so landlords carry out the work over several years. The UK was hit hard by the gas crisis because of failure to get on with simple common sense measures like these, and we’ll end up more dependent on foreign gas imports because of it. As the OBR has pointed out recently a failure to shift away from volatile gas prices could add 13% of GDP onto our national debt.

“The first set of minimum energy efficiency standards in 2018 made no significant difference to the number of rental properties available, with the sector actually increasing by over 150,000 since 2021. So the landlord lobby may claim that they’ll go packing but the evidence points to the contrary.”

Standards of housing in the private rented sector are among the worst of any sector. Almost one in four households (23 per cent) are classed as ‘non-decent’, which is roughly double that of the owner occupier and socially rented sectors. A similar proportion (24 per cent) of households live in fuel poverty, higher than the social rented sector (19 per cent) and owner occupier (9 per cent). Over half (56 per cent) of privately rented homes fall below EPC band C, which is much higher than the socially rented sector (31 per cent).