The Housing Forum has responded to the Government’s consultation on reforms to the Energy Performance of Buildings regime. Energy Performance Certificates (EPCS) to provide tenants and property owners with information on the energy performance of properties.
The Housing Forum broadly welcomes the proposed changes to EPCs. Since their inception in 2007, the use made of EPC ratings has grown significantly and these changes help to keep pace with this environment and ensure that EPCs remain fit for purpose.
The Housing Forum considers that there are three key property-based metrics that EPCs should contain:
- Fabric performance: assessing the thermal performance of a building
- Smart readiness – relating only to attributes of the property (ie not to things within it that would be removed if the property changed hands)
- Estimated energy use – split by type of energy
We would term these the ‘primary metrics’ because they are fixed things that will only change when changes are made to the property.
There are then two metrics that are of key interest to occupants of housing, but which will vary with changes in energy prices or the carbon intensity of the grid:
- Energy cost: helping individuals understand the financial implications of a building’s energy efficiency and make informed decisions about potential improvements
- Carbon: an estimate of the carbon emissions arising from the energy used in the building (this will be the single key one for non-domestic, for now).
Both of these ‘secondary metrics’ can be calculated from the primary metrics above, alongside other data (energy prices and the carbon intensity of the grid). EPC certificates can provide an estimate of both of these at the point that they are issued, but should note that they will change over the lifespan of the certificate.
EPC certificates should provide a link to an online calculator tool to facilitate an up to date estimate of the two secondary metrics.
Regulation and funding eligibility that currently relates to EPC ratings should instead relate to one or more of the primary metrics. This is important, because a property that complies with regulation or is eligible for funding should not cease to be so because of changes to energy prices or the carbon intensity of the grid.
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