Housing Secretary Michael Gove has recently admitted the government should consider slowing down the pace of private landlord energy performance ratings reforms.

In a Sunday Telegraph interview ‘hot on the heels’ of the Uxbridge by-election, Gove hinted that the threatened EPC time dictates could be changed in the landlords’ favour. 

The newspaper says: “Mr Gove admitted that in his own department the government was ‘asking too much too quickly’ of landlords, who will be banned from renting out their homes unless they pay for green measures such as insulation and heat pumps to meet a new minimum energy efficiency threshold by 2028.”

The Telegraph continues: “Citing existing financial pressures on landlords [Gove] added: ‘I think we should relax the pace.’"

Recently one of the UK’s largest online real estate property portals claims 16 per cent of homes for sale had been in the private rental sector and believes the threat of imminent higher energy performance requirements is forcing many landlords to sell their properties.

The interview with Gove centred on the government’s green issues following Labour’s failure to win the Uxbridge by-election with both parties agreeing that the result was down to the ‘hated’ expansion of the Ultra Emission Zone.