Just under half of landlords have indicated that they intend to make energy efficiency improvements to their properties as part of the Government’s Green Homes Grant scheme.

In a survey carried out on behalf of Paragon Bank, 45% of landlords said that they plan to take up the offer of up to £5,000, covering two-thirds of the cost of measures such as insulation or upgrades to glazing or heating.

With so many landlords planning on taking advantage of the scheme and only 650,000 vouchers available for both owner-occupiers and landlords, demand is set to be high. In addition, vouchers must be redeemed and improvements completed by 31 March 2021.

Work must be carried out by a Trustmark-registered installer who is also registered with the scheme. This is leading to concerns around the availability of the limited number of installers eligible to complete the work.

Richard Rowntree, Paragon Managing Director for Mortgages said: “It’s fantastic to see that such large numbers of landlords are planning on making their properties more energy efficient. Doing this, with the help of Government subsidy, benefits the landlords themselves, their tenants and the environment, so it’s a sensible move.

“This does mean that demand is likely to be high so I would urge landlords to act now to avoid missing out. The private rented sector has played a key part in improving the sustainability of housing in the UK. Between 2008 and 2018, the average energy efficiency rating of privately rented dwellings increased more than any other tenure.”

Since April 2018, landlords have been required to achieve a minimum rating of E on the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) for their rental property for new tenancies or tenancy renewals. This was extended in April this year to cover existing tenancies, meaning all rented properties will need to have an EPC rating of E, even where there has been no change in tenancy.

Richard Rowntree added: “Of course, there is lots of work still to do and we understand our own place in this. We have a number of sustainability centric projects as part of our work towards operating in a way that has a positive impact on the environment. We look forward to sharing details of these in the coming months.”