MEES is back on the Agenda for Labour – EPC Plus Explained

Labour has revealed plans to overhaul of both Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) and the Minimum Energy Efficiency Standard (MEES).

The MEES Regulations set a minimum energy efficiency level for commercial and domestic private rental properties, while EPCs are the certificates that are issued to landlords to prove they have reached the standards, banded from A to G (with A being the best grade and G being the worst).

The Department of Energy and Net Zero is to launch a consultation with “proposals for improvements to EPCS to make them more accurate and reliable” while at an industry conference it was revealed by the department’s officials that the MEES regulations are to also to get an overhaul.

The plans to improve EPCs and MEES are hot on the heels of Ed Miliband’s promise to make landlords upgrade their properties to a minimum EPC grade C by 2030 or face being unable to rent them out. Currently this is for the domestic private rental market only but we fully expect to see an improvement to commercial MEES, the current proposal is EPC grade B by 2030 for commercial rental properties.

This process is likely to take some time, so it may be worth getting ahead of any changes by getting your property’s EPCs in place and ensuring compliance in time.

With this in mind – Take a look at how Vital can help you to navigate through this process: 

Draft EPC 

A site survey is carried out and all-important data is either surveyed/ requested form the landlord.
Producing a Draft EPC shows the rating of the property in its current state. 

Vital EPC Plus

Using the Draft EPC data, a bespoke report is produced showing a number of different options and combination of these options to upgrade the property to reach a higher grade. An example can be seen here.

The options suggested in the report have actual energy ratings and specifications that are caveated and detailed as actual capital equipment in the report, any deviation from the specifications data used will change the overall outcome of the EPC. The report also includes estimated capital costings and savings as can best be worked out.

At the heart of the report are two important grids to show the landlord, normally 4 upgrade options and how these options impact the EPC grade both individually and in combination with each other. 

NB: – This report is NOT an updatable consultancy document; it is a dated report produced with the best information or suggestion supplied to Vital at the date of the report (a Draft predicted EPC should always be produced once a final upgrade specification has been decided on – as a final check.  

DRAFT Predicted EPC – Final Check

Once the landlord has an accurate specification for each capital item they wish to fit, including lighting designs – a Draft Predicted EPC should be produced to ensure the actual grade & score achieves the desired outcome. Once works are complete another site survey is conduction to verify the works and produce a new draft EPC for lodgement to the government database.