The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has launched a new consultation seeking evidence on how Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) are currently performing along with requesting feedback on suggestions for improvement of the EPC.
Government are seeking opinions on how EPCs currently perform against three attributes:
- Quality
- Availability
- Encouraging action to improve energy efficiency
An EPC is used to measure the energy performance of buildings in residential, commercial and public sectors. Within the residential industry an EPC is ‘legally required’ for sale, letting or construction of a property (this may include an extension to a building) and if you are not doing any of these things you are not legally required to have an EPC.
An aim of the consultation is to improve the reliability of EPCs due to possible variations in assessor expertise, accreditation body requirements, difficulties assessing certain buildings and competition on cost, thus driving down quality. Evidence gained within the consultation may highlight where improvements might be made.
The reliability of an EPC within the private rented sector is even more important since the introduction of the Minimum Energy Efficiency Standard (MEES) on 6 April 2018. Inaccurate information is likely to have an impact on the rating achieved. In order for a property to comply with MEES the property must have achieved an EPC rating of an E or above or have a valid exemption registered. Without either the achieved rating or the registered exemption, the property cannot be let as it does not comply with MEES.
According to the consultation paper there is some evidence to suggest that when EPCs are repeated for the same property, they do not produce the same results. A Green Deal Mystery Shopper Exercise carried out in 2014 on 29 existing (i.e. not newly built) domestic properties found that almost two thirds of the dwellings considered had a variation spanning at least two bands across the five assessments carried out. This indicates that EPCs are less reliable for older properties. Whilst the consultation has set out some evidence that there is variability in EPC results, the source of the variations are not clear. A lot of the variation is likely to be unintentional discrepancies, however, deliberate manipulation of EPC results may occur.
The consultation closes on 19 October 2018 and PRSP will be responding on behalf of its members. Should you wish your views on how EPCs are performing to be included in the response, do email us your views by 24 September 2018.
Click on the following link for the full consultation: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/729853/epcs-call-for-evidence.pdf
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