Hello readers,

With the green agenda and drive towards the private rental market to have a minimum EPC rating of C by 2028, it may surprise you that a recent report has alluded to the possibility that not all council housing within Ashford has an EPC rating.

Ok, so I understand that an EPC certificate is only required for new and renewing tenancies, but surely when it comes to energy ratings you would have thought that the local council should be leading the way – particularly as its tenants would most likely be those least able to afford high energy bills (and particularly at the moment when the price cap has shot up!)

Ashford council’s recently released, draft Corporate Plan for 2022-24 states the following in the appendix as a project / activity:

“Complete EPC’s for all types of Council housing stock. Develop a plan for retrofitting HRA stock to be integrated into the HRA Asset Management Strategy.”

It’s interesting that the start date section of this particular action states:

“Complete survey work by Autumn 2021 followed by an ongoing carbon reduction programme.”

A freedom of information request I submitted has revealed some really interesting information about the EPC ratings of Ashford Council’s housing stock. I’ve outlined a summary below and you may be surprised to learn that over 40% does not have an EPC Certificate!

I also asked for clarification as to whether any landlords had been issued a warning or carried out enforcement measures where the minimum EPC rating requirements were not met for all time and the answer was none!

What I found particularly interesting from the FOI request apart from the fact that just over 40% had no rating whatsoever (that’s 2,091 out of 5,179) that no enforcement action had ever been taken by the local council or even warnings issued regarding minimum EPC ratings.

I suspect that this is because the Local Authority does not have the capacity to enforce the regulations that they are responsible for when it comes to the EPC rating for private housing stock. There will absolutely be privately rented properties which do not meet the requirements and with the proposals for an increase from an EPC E minimum to an EPC C minimum, I’m sceptical about how this will be policed!

Let’s look at the potential costs that Ashford council could face when needing to carry out works to upgrade its housing stock to meet this proposed EPC C rating.

I have outlined this in the table below with an assumed approximate cost per property and added down the properties without an EPC to the relevant rating by splitting by percentage.

When it comes to ratings of F and G, I haven’t included these as the cost would be extremely significant!

Potential Cost To Upgrade Ashford Council Stock

Based on my approximate calculation, that’s nearly £13m of taxpayers money which may need to be spent to make the necessary improvements! I’m sure you will agree that this is a significant cost and a huge project in and of itself.

This cost will be just a drop in the ocean when it comes to the cost of upgrading every property in the country below an EPC C however!

We’ll see how the paper progresses through parliament and whether the legislation actually goes anywhere. Personally, I’m on the fence as to whether I think it will, but the above certainly serves to highlight the challenging situation faced.

Hasan