Articles

1. From your perspective, what are the main MEES compliance challenges landlords are currently facing, and how do EPC requirements fit into this?

 

The main challenge right now is lack of clarity from the UK Government; we are still waiting for the final announcement for MEES despite numerous assurances in 2025. It means that at present the E rating is the only firm target.

The next challenge is accessing the right information, the EPC market is very fragmented, and it is easy to get poor advice. There are some guides, such as the Better Building Partnership EPC procurement guide, but finding the right partner is essential.

There is no funding available for Private landlords with high costs to meet the Band B requirements in some scenarios.

 

2. What are the most effective first steps landlords can take to improve EPC ratings in existing buildings?

 

It may sound obvious but ensuring they have the right baseline data to be planning from, for example assessments undertaking before June 2022 are likely to have a different rating due to a software change creating harsher penalty for gas heating and water systems.

 

3. How should landlords prioritise energy efficiency improvements when budgets or timelines are limited?

 

There are a few keys considerations: -

• A simple solution can usually be found, is if right for the assets and it intended occupants? If so, low tech solutions can usually be found, it should be noted in some circumstances in isolation this approach increases running costs.
• Is there an opportunity for any works to be funded in part by the tenant? Especially useful where there is an upcoming renewal discussion.
• Fabric first in encouraged which will have a significant impact on the buildings energy requirements, the costs can be very high with limited decent payback periods.
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4. How can early EPC planning help landlords stay ahead of future MEES changes and reduce long‑term risk?

 

Our approach is to maximise the baseline data to ensure it is accurate and plan from there. Regardless of what happens to EPCs and MEES all future regulations will drive out the use of fossil fuels as primary heating sources for buildings, so we advise. Understanding your EPC ratings to know which properties need interventions and plan from there, usually linked to lease expiry. We recommend commencing a minimum of 12 months before the expiry of the existing EPC or the next lease event to allow time to understand options and commission works with a contractor.

5. What role do specialist partners like Carbon Profile play in helping organisations achieve and maintain MEES compliance?

 

We offer an end-to-end service for EPCs, where data is not consolidated or fragmented, we have a dashboard to pull all critical data together. From the existing position we will guide a strategic approach, taking account for expiry dates, lease events and wider client objectives relating to ESG, sustainability or carbon reduction. We baseline properties in line with the strategy and where they fall short of compliance or objectives provide improvement options to consider. Our reports provide a full suite of costed options with payback periods combined with energy and carbon reduction targets.

Our experience across every architype of UK properties means we will have seen the same or similar challenges as those facing your clients before.

We offer a deeper option to look at the energy use of the building outside of the EPC methodology which will give an accurate energy consumption for planning for efficiency and optimisation in conjunction with compliance.

6. What common misconceptions do landlords have about MEES compliance and EPC improvement strategies?

 

Mainly that it will all go away, whatever happens degassing will be the way forward in terms of requirements to meet regulation linked to the primary objectives defined in the Performance of Buildings Regulations 2011.