The Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy
has published a consultation on Minimum Energy Efficiency Standard
(MEES) for the non-domestic private rented sector. There is
currently a restriction on letting or continuing to let property
with a minimum rating of E (without there being a valid exemption
or a registration on the PRS Exemptions Register). The government
wishes the minimum rating on the EPC level to rise by 2030 and the
consultation seeks views on how this is to be achieved and which
level it should rise to.
The paper asks for views on what the proposed new level should
be (B or C) and whether that move should be incremental or in one
stage. It also asks for views on how to overcome the problems of
the practice of letting a property prior to fit out when the EPC
rating is likely to below the necessary threshold and views on how
the regulations are enforced.
