Have your say on changes to EPCs and DECs

The government has launched a consultation on reforming the regime that measures the energy performance of buildings in England and Wales.

It is proposing changes to energy performance certificates (EPCs) – which rate non-domestic and domestic buildings, and display energy certificates (DECs) which are produced for public buildings over a certain size.

The changes include introducing additional metrics to calculate EPC ratings, and updating when energy certificates are required.

Changes to EPC metrics

Currently, buildings are given an EPC rating based on a single headline metric: in simple terms, these are energy cost per square metre for domestic, and carbon emissions per square metre for non-domestic. The government wants to use multiple metrics on EPCs to provide a more complete representation of building energy performance.

It is proposing that domestic EPCs use four factors: ‘fabric performance’, ‘heating system’, ‘smart readiness’ and ‘energy cost’ as headline metrics. These together convey the key, complementary aspects of building energy performance, allowing the user to distinguish where the home performs more or less well.

These changes are not yet being proposed for non-domestic buildings, however, the government wants feedback on whether these are applied at a later stage in this sector.  The current focus on just carbon emissions can give an incomplete picture of energy performance, as a building may see an improvement in its EPC rating as the carbon-intensity of electricity generation falls, even if no action has been taken to improve its performance.

The consultation also seeks views on including heritage buildings in scope of EPCs, and reducing the validity period of the certificates, which currently stand at 10 years. This would allow building upgrades, such as fabric changes, to be captured more frequently. 

Assessing the effectiveness of DECs

The consultation also seeks views on how the introduction of DECs has raised public awareness of energy usage in public buildings and whether it drives energy performance improvements. Public authority buildings which are frequently visited by the public and have a total floor area of over 250m² are required to have a DEC and DEC recommendation report.

It calls on respondents to suggest other approaches that may be more effective than DECs. Here too, the consultation considers reducing the validity period of DECs and DEC recommendation reports from 10 years to 7 years for buildings between 250-1,000m², and the validity period of DEC recommendation reports from 7 years to 5 years for buildings over 1,000m².

More information

The consultation is open on the government website until 26^th February 2025. Proposed changes would come into effect in 2026.