Stamp Duty Link to Energy Efficiency? How to Improve Your EPC Rating

Feb 14, 2022 | General News

An influential energy coalition has called for EPC ratings to be linked to stamp duty in a bid to encourage homeowners and landlords to invest in home insulation and protect against rising bills.

EPC is a review score of a properties energy efficiency rating, usually rated from A down to G depending on how efficient a property is.

The Energy Efficiency Infrastructure Group, made up of industry, businesses and charities, has written to Chancellor Rishi Sunak urging him to support a new Energy Saving Stamp Duty Incentive.

This aims to encourage people to either buy a more energy-efficient home or incentivise them to make it more energy-efficient afterwards by installing insulation or a heat pump. Households would be charged a lower level of stamp duty for doing so.

Homeowners are being encouraged to get their properties to EPC band C by 2035, while – if the new energy efficiency bill gets the green light – landlords will have to meet the target by December 2025 on new tenancies and on all rented properties by December 2028. There is mounting concern that this could spark many to quit the sector

How to Improve Your EPC Rating

  • Top up loft insulation – The simplest way to improve your EPC rating is to ensure your loft insulation is at least 270mm thick. Up to 25% of a properties heat can escape through the loft – good loft insulation will reduce this and also provide energy savings of up to £250 per year.
  • Add cavity wall insulation – Walls lacking proper insulation can allow huge amounts of heat to escape your home, driving your energy bills up and your EPC rating down. Cavity wall insulation is suitable for properties that have been built with a gap between two layers of brick. Insulation can be blown into the gap from the outside of your property through holes drilled in the wall. This is a relatively cheap and easy way to improve your EPC rating, and can also save you up to £250 per year on your energy bills.
  • Replace an old boiler – An old and inefficient boiler will dramatically reduce your EPC score. Replacing it with an energy-efficient one is costly but will massively improve your rating and help to lower your energy usage & bills too.
  • Install double glazing – Most modern-day properties will have double glazing at a minimum, but older properties may still be lacking this, which could mean lots of heat escaping through the window. Ff your property isn’t already double glazed, installing it will boost your score by up to ten points. Triple glazing is also a solution, however, double glazing is the mainstream standard.
  • Add External Solid Wall Insulation – Brick solid walls, usually found on older buildings & terraced housing, can leak large amounts of heat, damaging your EPC rating and the efficiency of your home. Insulating solid walls is a huge step to combatting this, significantly improving your EPC rating and offering energy bill savings of up to £450 per year.

For more information regarding energy efficiency and how you can improve your EPC rating, please don’t hesitate to contact us today and our friendly team will be happy to help.