Call of the month: What are the political parties' plans for energy efficiency?

This month we helped a member who called to find out more about what each of the major political parties' manifestos have to say about energy efficiency and any plans for new standards. 

Our member has a D rated property. They were aware that last autumn, the government decided not to go ahead with raising the EPC rating to a C by 2028 and wanted to know more about what to expect.

Our advisor firstly signposted them to the general election manifestos page 

Labour has promised nobody will be required to ‘rip out their boiler’ but they intend to ensure homes in the PRS meet minimum energy efficiency standards by 2030. Its manifesto doesn’t specify this is a C rating. Labour has previously said it intends to reinstate the proposals that were dropped by the Conservatives, so this could be indicative of a C rating. 

The Conservative Party has proposed an energy efficiency voucher scheme for every household in England to support installing energy efficiency measures and solar panels to lower bills. It has not referenced any minimum standard changes, so they are bringing the EPC C requirement back. 

The Liberal Democrats have talked about an EPC C minimum rating, with their target being to implement this by 2028. They, similar to the Conservative and Labour parties, have proposed a scheme directed at energy-saving measures in the home, with pilots to be conducted to look at tax incentives, loans and grants as well as advice and support. 

Finally, to look at the remaining two parties. Reform UK has not mentioned anything about energy efficiency in the home. It has promised to scrap net zero targets and other related subsidies. 

The Green Party has committed a total of £45 billion to be spent over five years. It aims to use £29 billion of this as part of a ten-year programme to bring homes to an EPC B rating, the highest proposed of any party, with £17 billion of the money going towards the PRS and the other £12billion to social housing. It wants to spend £9 billion on heating systems and a further £7 billion on adapting homes to be better suited to periods of hot weather. 

We told the member to keep an eye on our General Election Campaigns hub news cente and social media channels to keep up to date on all the latest election news.