Propertymark has backed a call for stamp duty incentives to be introduced to drive forward domestic energy efficiency.
The trade body’s policy and campaigns manager Timothy Douglas says: “We want to see more energy-efficient homes, but how homeowners and landlords will pay the necessary costs remains a major barrier to current targets for the private rented sector and a reduction in emissions across the entire property sector being met.
“The UK government must give consideration to a variety of incentive schemes alongside access to sustained funding that will help homeowners and landlords to make their properties more energy-efficient, cut their carbon footprint and reduce energy bills.”
Last month the Energy Efficiency Infrastructure Group - a coalition of consumer, energy, construction and finance organisations - wrote to Chancellor Rishi Sunak to warn that 20 per cent of the UK’s carbon emissions now come from homes.
Its letter stated: “Homeowners can be incentivised - nudged, 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.”
Propertymark backs the EEIG’s suggestion that the concept of a stamp duty incentive is the most viable way of stimulating 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 conditions for owners and buyers to invest in, and improve, their own homes.