Minimum EPC plans withdrawn

The Scottish Government’s previous proposals which would have required private rented properties to achieve an EPC rating of C at change of tenancy from 2025 will no longer go ahead in their current form. 

Instead they have published new proposals which will require landlords to meet new energy efficiency standards by 2028.

The Scottish Government have been planning to introduce minimum energy standards for private rented properties for over 10 years.  During this time plans and proposed implementation dates have changed several times, causing uncertainty for landlords and investors.

They have now published another consultation which sets out revised proposals to improve the energy efficiency of all properties, in both homes and non-domestic buildings. These are:-

• by the end of 2028, private landlords will need to meet a new minimum energy efficiency standard
• owner occupiers will need to meet the same minimum energy efficiency standard by the end of 2033, unless they have ended their use of polluting heating;
• by some date yet to be determined, those purchasing a property must comply with the prohibition on polluting heating within a specified amount of time following completion of the sale (likely 2-5 years);
• by the end of 2045, all building owners will need to have ended their use of polluting heating.

It’s intended that the ‘Minimum Energy Efficiency Standard’ will be a standard which can be met by installing a straightforward list of measures. This list of measures would be developed to prioritise those that could have most impact for homes with the lowest amount of cost and disruption. Any home owner who had installed these measures – or as many of them as are feasible for the type of home – would be considered to meet the new standard.

It does not include more expensive or potentially disruptive measures.   It’s recognised there will be some properties for which some of the measures mentioned are not relevant.  Those properties would only have to comply with the measures which are relevant to their property.