Ed Miliband’s Housing Energy Plan Will Decimate the Rental Market and Send Rents Spiralling
According to the Telegraph, Ed Miliband’s reaction to the rise of Reform is to press ahead with plans that will require “all private rental homes to have an energy performance certificate (EPC) of C or higher by 2030”. Sympathy for the putative beneficiaries of skyrocketing house prices and rents has of course dissipated faster than the power from Spanish electrical socket. But squeezing an unpopular constituency will not create any benefit for their tenants and will have many entirely predictable ‘unintended’ consequences. Another Net Zero policy is headed for crisis.
The cost of all these upgrades will be a whopping £36 billion, reports the Telegraph. The average EPC grades within local authorities of the UK have been compiled by UK Finance, which the Telegraph describes as a “banking lobby group”, in a comprehensive survey of rented homes’ EPC ratings that do not meet ‘Grade C’ or above. Near the top of the list, rented homes within the Cotswold district of Gloucestershire, for example, achieved an average EPC Grade E. Remedying this shortcoming will cost the landlords of 3,124 rented homes between £16,890 and £34,000 apiece.
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Decade = ten years. Decimal currency = multiples of ten. Decimate = reduce by one in ten. As a tenant I will be grateful if the rental market is reduced by only a tenth, but I fear the worst.
I thought it meant “reduced TO a tenth”….?
Make as you will of it:
“the inhabitants of the country had been decimated”
2.HISTORICAL
A way of turning the members of a legion against each other. If they did not kill one in ten of their colleagues they would all be slaughtered by another legion.
If there are rumours of mutiny in your legion you’ll need to pick your side carefully as you may be the one that nine of your apparent colleagues choose to kill.
For what do we have to thank the Romans?
Certainly not decimation!
Landlords, farmers, pensioners, private schools – who will the Kommissars next label Enemies of the People?
You missed out voters in those counties where elections have been cancelled. Also pub landlords.
Isn’t the obvious one homeowners?
I wonder will the Government use our money to fit out landlords property’s so that they can be let to Asylum seekers, think about it, what landlord faced with a bill of the size mentioned above would refuse the Governments kind offer of our money.
Is SERCO offering to bring homes it rents up to minimum EPC standards, among the many generous benefits offered to landlords, before housing invaders – at our expense?
Not only will the properties have to be up to EPC standards every one of them have to be fully furnished with everythig a migrant needs move in .. all furniture needed – tables, chairs, beds, bedding, carpets, curtains, towels etc. … all kitchen & cooking utensils – plates, crockery, cutlery (including sharp knives of course).
Add to that – appliances that no migrant should be without … TV, DVD Player, Fridge-Freezer, Microwave, Broadband router (with free Broadband), Vaccum Cleaner all powered by free electricity. (How about a nice Dish Washer too?).
Free water supply, regular waste collection and no requirement to pay property insurance or Council Tax.
And if the inmates damage the property … redecorate the rooms, chop up the furniture for firewood, sell the appliances on ebay, turn to property into a canabis farm … then HM Gummint will pick up all the cost of repairs.
In the end its more expensive than hotels and does irreparable damage to the local community. (see the recent article about young women in Italy)
All those quaint Cotswold cottages are terribly inefficient, and what’s more they are probably racist, having been built and occupied entirely by white people. Best to knock them down and use the land for important rewilding or solar projects. The residents can be rehoused in shining Grenfell-style homes of the future in East London.
Sorry to inform you but you’ve failed our ruse called an Energy Performance Certificate we created in partnership with the largest companies on Earth. You can only sell your house now if it’s an A or B. But don’t worry, here’s BlackRock to take it off your hands for the price of a used Nissan Leaf.
I have an old friend who is a fully qualified Architect. He and his partner built up an architectural practice in both the UK and in Europe, designed many buildings and developments, winning many gongs and diplomas.
One of his last projects before retirement was an ‘experimental’ housing development in Greater Manchester, for Council “Passive Houses”, to be built to scientifically based German standards, extracting waste heat for re-use etc.etc.
The EPC scheme was universally acknowledged as a bad joke.
So, at enormous expense, a street of these fancy Passive houses were constructed under the watch of senior council officials, representatives of Blackrock themselves and assorted boffins.
At a final meeting, my friend suggested that a simple “Users’ Guide” be produced for residents. For the Passive House scheme to work, you can’t just go around opening windows or installing blinds willy- nilly.
“No point in that!”, declaimed a senior Council Head of Department.
“We already let all the properties, and I very much doubt there is even one who can understand English!”
So what if many landlords are forced out of the rental market? Better to have no home at all than a home with an inadequate EPC!
How much longer has Britain got to put up with this muppet?
I wonder what will happen in 2030 if you simply do nothing. Will you still be able to rent out your property or will it become vacant?
EPC ratings are another farcical scam to add to this insane pile of corrupt policies designed to impoverish us all.
We should all refuse to use these junk certificates.