A landlord rings up quoting a headline about EPC C by 2030. Most of that headline is policy rather than law, and the gap between the two is where your credibility sits.
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The two sentences to keep apart
Today the property has to reach EPC E, and the most your landlord can be required to spend getting it there is £3,500 including VAT. EPC C by 2030 is government policy, and there is no law behind it yet.
That is the whole of it. Everything below is what you say when a landlord pushes back, and why the pushback keeps happening.
What your landlord read, and what the law says
Five lines come up again and again, and you will recognise every one of them. The middle column is the enacted position. The right column is the sentence you can say out loud.
| What your landlord read | What the law says today | What you tell them |
|---|---|---|
| "All rentals must be EPC C by 2030" | Not enacted. There is no instrument. The floor is EPC E. | "It is proposed, but it is not a rule yet. Today the property needs an E." |
| "The cap has gone up to £10,000" | Not enacted. The cap is £3,500 including VAT. £10,000 is a consulted-on figure. | "£10,000 is the figure the government wants. £3,500 is the figure you can be penalised against." |
| "EPC C is required for new tenancies from 2028" | Not enacted, and not what the current policy says. The current response works to 1 October 2030, with grandparenting before 1 October 2029. | "The 2028 date is out of date even as policy. The date the government works to now is 2030." |
| "The government confirmed it, I read it on gov.uk" | A gov.uk news page dated 30 April 2026 does say "By 2030, all privately rented homes must meet new energy efficiency standards (EPC rating C or better) unless exempt". It is policy. The government's own formal response says the powers do not exist yet. | "The news page and the formal response say different things. The formal response is the one that tells you what can be enforced." |
| "So I can ignore EPC entirely" | No. EPC E binds now, and letting an F or G without a registered exemption is unlawful today. | "The opposite. The rule you can actually be fined under is the one already in force." |
What is the law today?
One set of regulations, one band, one cap. The 2015 energy efficiency regulations stop a landlord letting a sub-standard home, and sub-standard means an EPC of F or G. That is the Minimum Energy Efficiency Standard, MEES, and here it is at a glance:
- Minimum rating: band E. An F or G cannot be let without a registered exemption.
- New tenancies: since 1 April 2018.
- Every continuing let: since 1 April 2020. A tenant who moved in years ago makes no difference.
- Cost cap: £3,500 including VAT, per property. Your landlord spends up to it, then registers an exemption rather than spending more.
- England and Wales. Scotland and Northern Ireland run their own rules.
That floor is all your landlord has to meet this year, and it is all you have to hold on the phone. The cap arithmetic, the exemption classes, the register and the penalties are a longer job, and our MEES guide for landlords takes each one in turn. If the certificate itself is the question rather than the standard, start with our guide to how EPCs work.
What has the government announced but not legislated?
Your landlord's headline comes from a real document, not a rumour. The government response to its consultation on improving the energy performance of privately rented homes, updated on 21 January 2026, sets out what ministers intend:
- compliance by 1 October 2030;
- a new dual metric, fabric first and then the heating system or smart readiness;
- an investment cap of up to £10,000;
- ten-year validity for the revised cost-cap, property-value and negative-impacts exemptions;
- grandparenting for a property that reaches EPC C before 1 October 2029.
Every line of that is policy. And here is the line that settles the argument in your favour. The response says government "will proceed with introducing new powers by Act of Parliament to implement the decisions set out in the government response", and will only then seek to lay a statutory instrument, with the aim of it coming into force in 2027.
It is stronger than "not yet enacted", and it is the sentence you want in your pocket. The government has said what it wants. It has also said it cannot make it a rule until Parliament gives it the power. So when a landlord tells you EPC C is settled, you are not disagreeing with the government. You are quoting it.
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"Do I need to spend £10,000?"
This is what the phone call is really about, and the honest answer has three parts. You should give all three.
No, not today. The cap your landlord can be held to is £3,500 including VAT, and the band they have to reach is E. If the property already sits at E or better, they owe MEES nothing this year.
The £10,000 is a want, not a duty. It is the figure the government has said it will legislate for once it has the power, aimed at 1 October 2030.
Spending now is a commercial call, not compliance. A landlord putting capital into a G-rated flat this year is deciding about a standard that is coming, not meeting one that exists. That can still be the right decision. It is simply a different decision, and it should turn on the numbers rather than on a headline.
For the planning arithmetic across a portfolio, and for the exemption routes where a property cannot reach E, send them to our EPC C 2030 guide. That page does the depth. Your job on the call is the split.
What else will a landlord put to you?
"It is on gov.uk, so it must be the law." A gov.uk news page from 30 April 2026 does say that by 2030 all privately rented homes must meet new energy efficiency standards of EPC C or better, unless exempt. News pages describe policy. The formal consultation response says the powers to make it binding do not exist yet. Both can be true at once, and only one of them can be enforced against your landlord.
"If I get it to a C now, am I finished?" Today they are finished at an E, and that is the answer you give. Under the announced policy, a property reaching EPC C before 1 October 2029 would be grandparented, so early work would not be wasted if the rules land as drafted. Say "would be" and not "will be", because none of it is made yet.
"Nothing has changed since 2019, so why are we talking about it?" Something did change, and you can say so. The 2015 regulations were amended on 1 May 2026 by the Renters' Rights Act 2025 consequential instrument, which deleted the Section 21 reference from them. It left the band E standard and the cost cap exactly where they were. The regulations moved. The standard did not.
"Can you put that in writing for me?" You can, and the safe form of words is short. Say what the property has to reach now, say what the government has announced, and label the second one as policy in the same sentence you state it. You are not forecasting anything, so avoid writing anything that reads like a forecast. If you would rather not draft it at all, send the landlord one of the guides linked here and let the page carry it.
What has not changed?
Four things did not move at all. Name them and you have usually answered the question:
- The EPC E floor. It reached every continuing let in April 2020 and it binds today.
- The valid EPC before marketing. A property that needs a certificate still needs one before it goes on the market.
- The exemption route. Where an F or G has not been improved to E, a valid entry on the PRS Exemptions Register is still the only lawful way to let it.
- Your landlord's obligations this year. Nothing in the announced policy changes anything they have to do before the next tenancy starts.
A landlord ringing about EPC C usually needs to hear that nothing they do this year has to change, and you will get through that call faster than any of the alternatives.
Which energy work can your landlord deduct?
One piece of tax comes at you often enough to be worth having right, because plenty of people have it backwards.
Replacing part of the building with the nearest modern equivalent is a repair, and a repair comes off the rent in the year. HMRC's property income manual uses single glazing replaced with double glazing as its own example. A like-for-like boiler swap works the same way. Capital treatment is for genuine additions and upgrades beyond that modern equivalent: insulation where there was none, first-time central heating, extending the system, or a specification a repair would never have delivered. Capital spend does not come off the rent. It goes on the base cost for capital gains tax, and a grant received under the main energy schemes reduces that base cost too.
A landlord who has that the wrong way round is out of pocket in the year they spend the money. Our MEES guide carries the full treatment.
What to do when the next landlord calls
Keep the two sentences apart when you answer. One is the rule: band E, and £3,500. The other is the plan: band C, £10,000, and 2030, none of it made yet. Landlords get into trouble when somebody blurs the two, and they remember the person who did not.
Before the conversation turns technical, you want two facts in front of you. What band does the current certificate show, and is an exemption already registered against the property? Those two answers decide whether there is anything to discuss this year at all. Then send the landlord the guides above and let them read the depth in their own time, which keeps it off your desk.
The rest of the desk questions, from tenancy reform to deposits and quarterly filing, sit on our hub for letting agents.
Reference: the Energy Efficiency (Private Rented Property) (England and Wales) Regulations 2015 (SI 2015/962), as amended.