The government recently announced a green homes grant, allowing homeowners and landlords to make efficiency changes to their properties much more cheaply. This article looks into this scheme in more detail.

With more and more people worrying about their impact on the environment and the climate crisis as well as how we can liver greener lives as individuals. From energy saving appliances and lightbulbs, to composting, repurposing, and upcycling, many of us are looking for ways to reduce our carbon impact in our everyday lives. With the government’s Clean Growth Strategy, there has been further emphasis placed on this for domestic landlords.

The recently launched initiative titled the Green Homes Grant which has been announced as part of the Clean Growth Strategy with money provided through vouchers which are available for all residential properties excluding new builds. They are able to fund two thirds of any improvements up to a maximum of £5,000.

All rental properties are currently rated using an energy performance certificate (EPC) and properties must have a minimum of an E rating (with the lowest being G) in order to be able to be let in England. The current stated aim of these changes is to get all rental properties to be rated at a C level or higher by the end of 2035. The current procedures surrounding EPCs came into force from the 1^st April 2018 for all new lettings and from April 2016, landlords are unable to reasonably refuse to upgrade the energy efficiency of a property.

If you would like to learn more about the current rules, we have written a guide from when they first were introduced and our Residential Lettings team and Reactive Property Management Team would be delighted to help. If your property is managed by RIB we can also help guide you through the whole process and provide up to date advice on best practise for your property.