Heat Pumps Today

16 Thousands of commercial landlords could end up with costly ‘stranded assets’ once new Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards (MEES) legislation for buildings comes into effect next month, according to the Building Engineering Services Association (BESA). Property sector heading for energy efficiency crunch, warns BESA Taskforce can unlock £1trn energy efficiency market From April 1st, it will no longer be legal to let a property with an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating below E. However, the Association warned that many building owners and managers were completely unaware and unprepared. A survey of more than 500 oce decision makers, commissioned by law firm Irwin Mitchell, found that just 32% knew their current EPC rating and only 31% what rating their oce needed to achieve in April. Occupants ‘Redefining the Oce – a report on oce occupier trends in 2023’ also revealed that a sizeable number of property firms don’t know what measures they should take to make their building compliant and 10% of respondents said they didn’t understand the EPC rating system. Recent figures from the real estate management firm Colliers suggested more than 10% of London oce buildings could fail to meet the new standard. BESA said landlords should seriously April | May 2023 B E S A U P D A T E S consider investing in energy eciency retrofits, but that they could also quickly improve their EPC ratings with a series of free or low-cost measures. These include turning down thermostats and heating flow temperatures, checking the settings on heating and cooling controls, having boilers and other plant serviced, improving insulation, and replacing inecient lightbulbs with LEDs. Raise eyebrows Tim Rayner, joint head of real estate disputes at Irwin Mitchell, said the results of the survey should “raise eyebrows” pointing out that the MEES legislation was set to tighten even further in the future with the minimum rating moving to C in 2025. Respondents raised several concerns about the new rules with many commercial property users worried that they would not be able to renew their leases and others fearing their landlord would try to pass on the cost of energy eciency upgrades through service charges. However, 84% of respondents said they would be prepared to pay higher rents for oce space that reduced their environmental impact, and this was also a key driver for companies looking to move to new premises. The Building Engineering Services Association (BESA) has praised the government for launching an energy eciency taskforce charged with driving investment in improving the performance of buildings. Co-chaired by leading banker Alison Rose and energy security and net zero minister Lord Callanan, the taskforce will devise a plan to cut energy consumption in domestic, commercial, and industrial buildings by 15% by 2030 compared with 2021 levels. The government is putting a total of £12.6bn behind the plan this decade - £6.6bn allocated during this Parliament and the rest from 2025. Chancellor Jeremy Hunt believes energy eciency could be worth £1 trillion to UK businesses between now and 2030, and emphasised its importance to energy security, economic growth, and the delivery of net zero. BESA said that energy eciency measures could be rapidly scaled up through a national programme of building retrofits, which would put the built environment at the heart of economic growth and the government’s net zero targets. Skills gap However, it urged the taskforce to make training and recruitment a key focus for investment to address the ‘green skills gap’ that could undermine the strategy. A recent Energy Systems Catapult report found that just 2% of workers in the heating industry were female and only 5% were from an ethnic background. It said this lack of diversity was undermining e¢orts to decarbonise heating and hot water in buildings. www.theBESA.com Graeme Fox