News Blog

Property Industry Eye reports today....... 

Almost 1.7 million do not have the potential to improve higher than an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating of between D and G, according to fresh analysis of over 15 million homes across England & Wales by Rightmove.

Castle Point in Essex comes in second with 77.2% of homes rated D or below, though it has the potential to reduce to 13% of all homes

Tower Hamlets in London has the lowest proportion of homes with a current EPC rating of D or below, at 27.4%.

The government’s current aspiration is to have as many homes as possible reach a C rating by 2035 in England and Wales, with an earlier target of 2030 for private rented homes.

Across England and Wales, 59% of homes have a D, E, F or G rating and there is the potential for this to be reduced to 11% of homes if recommended improvements were made, according to the research.

Tim Bannister, Rightmove’s director of property data, said: “It’s encouraging to see that there are some energy efficiency improvements that can cost less than £100, so it’s definitely worth checking your EPC if your home has one to see if there are small changes you could make to try and improve your rating.

“The bigger challenge is for those homes with much lower ratings that will cost a substantial amount of money to improve. There are a number of homeowners who don’t feel an urgent need to make changes now unless it makes a big difference to the cost of their household bills or if it’s going to make their home more attractive to a potential buyer if they’re planning to sell.

“It’s early days with some lenders now starting to introduce green mortgages as incentives, but homeowners need to be better informed that how green your home is will become increasingly important as we aim to move towards a net zero society, and they need more help to understand why making improvements are so important for the long term.”