果冻影院

On Sunday 23 June The Sunday Times published a聽feature in their Home聽section聽entitled 鈥樷��. They interviewed Professor Paul Ruyssevelt for his expert knowledge on the effects of EPCs on house prices and the use of聽EPC data in understanding energy efficiency in the housing stock.聽

What are EPCs?

Anyone selling a property in England and Wales is required to obtain an EPC before putting it on the market. It allows the potential buyer to work out what the energy running costs of the property are likely to be, with ratings from A (very efficient) to G (inefficient). Since their launch twelve years ago, almost 20 million certificates have been issued. The assessments cost聽between 拢50 and 拢100, and are carried out by a domestic energy assessor (DEA).聽The government has recently been looking into聽how the scheme might be improved.聽

What has their effect been on the housing market?

According to research cited by Professor Paul Ruyssevelt, homes with an A-B rating can attract a 5% premium, or 拢10,000 on average. 鈥淎lthough the ratings can be seen to be influencing the market a bit, it鈥檚 still not a top priority for buyers,鈥� he says. The premium for Band C homes is lower, at around 1.8%.

How could EPCs聽help meet UK carbon emission-reduction targets?

With domestic dwellings contributing 23% of UK carbon emissions, inproving聽energy efficiency in homes will clearly be necessary聽in helping the UK meet its target to reduce net carbon emissions to zero by 2050. However, because the criteria for EPCs are so standardised, the data聽may not be suffficient聽when making substantial聽improvements to individual homes: 鈥淎nyone seriously considering an energy efficient retrofit to their home would do well to consider to a specialised surveyor鈥�, says Professor聽Ruyssevelt. But because so many EPCs have been issued, they now provide an invaluable聽source of data on overall energy consumption in聽the UK housing stock, which can be used to inform聽energy policy聽at local and national levels. For example, ministers are聽considering changing stamp duty in a way that would favour homes with better EPC ratings.

The article also references the current work of the Building Stock Lab at the 果冻影院 Energy Institute: 鈥淎t 果冻影院 we are currently building a map of London which uses EPC data to show energy consumption in every London home within the M25 area. The Mayor of London, who commissioned the map, will use it to focus improvements that will reduce fuel poverty and help London hit its carbon reduction targets.鈥�

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• Visit the research page for our Buildings聽theme