Recent research from Building magazine has revealed that building owners appear to have no plans at all or are preparing to do only the bare minimum to meet new energy efficiency standards in 2018. The Energy Act has proposed to make it illegal to rent a building space with an energy performance rating below E from 2018.
From a survey of retail and office building owners and developers, only 6% said making improvements to their stock was a priority even though all respondents had some F and G rated buildings in their portfolio. In response to this it has been said that these results show that the government needs to give more certainty about the changes as these results could be due to the fact that there is currently only verbal reassurance that F and G rated buildings will be made illegal and a suggestion that the minimum standard will be brought in for all leases. If these changes will be addressed to all leases then it has been said that it will be very problematic for landlords.
