Stamp duty rebates for buyers of homes with good EPCs - call

A stamp duty cut would provide a long-term to improve energy efficiency on homes, the Chancellor has been told by an influential group.

The Energy Efficiency Infrastructure Group - a coalition of consumer, energy, construction and finance organisations - has written to Rishi Sunak to warn that 20 per cent of the UK’s carbon emissions now come from homes.

It says: “Homeowners can be incentivised - nudged but not told - to improve their own homes to allow funding to be directed to those that don’t have means or access to finance. To realise this, the UK government should provide an incentive for homeowners that goes beyond one-off, shorter-term grants for specific technologies. Whilst delivering low-cost measures, boom-bust grants have failed to produce a legacy of delivery capacity – vital for sustainable and efficient supply chains.”

It describes the concept of a stamp duty incentive as the most viable approach to stimulate and support owner-occupiers to act at scale to save energy. 

“It will ensure that installation of vital energy efficiency measures become part of the house purchase process, acting as a driver for discussions with banks or other lenders about funding. The incentive will encourage people to actively think about the energy performance of the home they are considering purchasing, about potential improvements, consider any retrofit costs and plan ahead to realise the rebate, reducing the cost of retrofitting under-performing homes” says the EEIG’s letter to Sunak.

The group calls for a stamp duty rebate significant enough to get homebuyers’ attention and create the conditions for owners and buyers to invest in, and improve, their own homes. 

To underpin the rebate concept, the EEIG wants “an EPC regime based on real, verified performance data … This will simultaneously enhance retrofit and building standards and give homeowners the ability to hold installers and builders to account for the quality of their work.”

The group tells Sunak that it believes an Energy Saving Stamp Duty Incentive could prove more effective, and simpler, than a large-scale, short-term, costly grant programme.

“We urge you to engage the power of the market and start a two-decade long retrofit campaign” the Chancellor is told.