Landlords could be required to install heat pumps or solar panels to reach the government’s proposed EPC C standard, as ministers consider a major overhaul of the rating system. The potential reforms have sparked warnings that the changes would place substantial new costs on property owners.

According to a report in The Telegraph, the government is examining rules that would prevent homes heated by gas boilers from securing a C rating under a new heating-system metric. The revamped EPC framework would score properties across four areas: fabric efficiency, smart-readiness, energy cost and heating type.

However there are four benchmarks with very little change to be allowed.

Under the plans, landlords would need to achieve a C rating for fabric performance — covering insulation, glazing and other efficiency measures — and then meet two of the remaining three metrics. But if fossil-fuel heating is effectively barred from the heating category, many landlords would be left relying on the smart-readiness metric, which typically requires installing solar panels alongside a smart meter.

The government has already confirmed that all privately rented homes must reach EPC C by 2030. Its own modelling suggests that meeting the target will require the installation of around 937,700 solar panel systems and more than 108,700 heat pumps across the sector.

The PRS Industry sends out stark warnings that the price and complex issues are too much.

A spokesman for an agents’ association warned that the proposals would leave landlords with little real choice over the technologies they adopt “, he said: “For a large proportion of the existing housing stock — particularly older, rural or hard-to-treat properties — this is neither straightforward nor affordable,” Thomas said.

He added that the sector also lacks the workforce and financial support needed to deliver the upgrades ministers are considering. “There simply isn’t enough skilled capacity, grant funding is limited, and there’s still huge uncertainty about how these new metrics would operate in practice.”

He added that the sector also lacks the workforce and financial support needed to deliver the upgrades ministers are considering. “Existing funding schemes are also highly restrictive, with eligibility often tied to tenant circumstances, income thresholds or whether a property is in a deprived area.”