Landlords for domestic properties
Improve the lives of your tenants, increase the value of your property and meet environmental standards.
Introduction to saving energy at home
In a typical British home up to a third of the heat produced by central heating is lost through the roof, walls, floor and windows. This means a poorly insulated property wastes £1 out of every £3 spent on energy.
Below is advice and support to help you make your home more energy-efficient, reduce energy bills, and upgrade to low carbon and more efficient systems such as solar, heat pumps and electric vehicle charging.
We welcome your input. If you have suggestions for new information or resources, send an email to net.zero@brighton-hove.gov.uk.
Ways to make your property more energy efficient
Energy Performance Certificates (EPC) and energy efficiency standards
An EPC helps you understand the energy performance of your property.
If you’re planning to rent out your property, you'll need an EPC before you rent it to a tenant.
In January 2026, the government announced that by 1 October 2030 landlords must ensure that their properties have at least an EPC rating of C, whether it is a new or ongoing tenancy, or risk facing financial penalties of up to £30,000.
EPCs will move away from a single rating to four standards: energy cost, fabric performance, heating system and smart readiness. This is likely to occur in the second half of 2027.
See this useful guide to EPCs on the Energy Saving Trust website and find your property’s latest energy certificate on the gov.uk website.
The government introduced minimum energy efficiency standards (MEES) to improve the quality and increase the energy efficiency of privately rented houses and buildings.
Find out more about EPCs and the MEES regulations and what they mean for landlords.
You can find support for landlords to meet the EPC and MEES standards on the Centre for Sustainable Energy website.
How to make improvements to your property
- book a home energy survey with BHESCo
- consider installing a smart meter to better manage energy use and find ways to save energy - find out how to get a smart meter on the smart meters website
- learn more about low and zero carbon technologies for heat and power
Older and conservation area properties
If you own an older home, listed building or are in a conservation area, see Historic England’s guide to how to save energy in an older home and more specific guidance on heat pump and solar pv installations. Historic England also provides pre-application advice to homeowners in relation to Grade I and II* listed buildings.
If you have a technical enquiry relating to traditional buildings (e.g. those constructed with bungaroosh), you can also receive free and confidential advice by calling the technical advice line run by the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings.
The council has produced a planning guidance note on improving energy saving and sustainability in conservation areas and listed buildings.
Insulation
Installing insulation or draught-proofing will prevent heat loss and save energy and money. Find advice on how to insulate your home on the Energy Saving Trust website.
Choosing a qualified contractor
PAS standards
The Publicly Available Specification (PAS) 2035 is the British Standard for whole house retrofit, designed to ensure best practice and improve energy efficiency in housing.
The PAS 2030 certificate verifies that installers are competent in carrying out energy efficiency measures within retrofit projects.
Find out more about the PAS standards on the National Energy Foundation website.
The Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS) is an independent certification scheme that provides quality assurance for renewable energy installations.
Find out more about the MCS quality mark and the technologies it covers.
Trustmark
Look out for Trustmark registered installers.
Trustmark offers support for traders to be accredited for installing energy efficiency measures and low carbon heating.
Solar panels
Find out if solar panels are right for your home, how they work, and how to get them installed in the guide to solar panels on the Energy Saving Trust website.
Get an estimate of how much electricity your roof might be able to generate on the arcgis website (click the layers symbol and select 'Sussex rooftop PV potential view').
Check out planning permission for installing solar panels on your property.
If you have a low carbon energy system already such as solar panels, the Smart Export Guarantee (SEG) provides an opportunity to sell unused solar energy back to the grid. Find more information about how selling energy back to the grid works between the landlord and tenant in the RISE toolkit.
Heat pumps
- check if a heat pump could be suitable for your property on the gov.uk website
- visit a heat pump near you and see how they work in real homes through nesta’s visit a heat pump scheme
- find out how heat pumps work and how to get them installed in the guide to heat pumps on the Energy Saving Trust website
Replace your boiler with a heat pump
Find a qualified installer to replace your boiler with a heat pump on the gov.uk website.
More information about getting a qualified installer and what to look for is on the MCS website. MCS sets, defines and maintains the standards for low carbon energy technology products, contractors and their installations. This includes heat pumps, biomass, small wind and battery storage.
If you live in an older home, listed building or conservation area, see Historic England’s guide on how to find the right professional help.
Find more information, resources and guidance about how to get a heat pump to help you make well-informed choices, on the Get a Heat Pump website.
Financial support
If you rent your home to tenants on low income you may be able to apply for a grant for making improvements. You might have to pay some of the cost of making the improvements.
You might be able to apply for the Energy Company Obligation (ECO) scheme
Find out more about the ECO grant and how to apply.
You could get a grant to cover part of the cost of replacing fossil fuel heating systems such as gas or oil-fired boilers. Grants of £7,500 are available for air source heat pumps or ground source heat pumps, and £5,000 for biomass boilers.
Find out more and apply for the government’s Boiler Upgrade Scheme.
Heat networks
In the future, more properties are expected to be heated through connection to a heat network. It may even become mandatory for certain building types.
Find out more about what a heat network is and heat network zoning on the gov.uk website.
Find out how to make a building heat network ready in this guide from Islington Council.
The consumer service for energy problems at Citizens Advice can now give advice about problems with heat networks.
Read about the work that BHESCo have been doing to develop low carbon heat networks in Sussex.
Electric vehicles
Increase the attractiveness of your rental property by offering on-site electric charging and help your tenants switch to an electric car. Find out more about electric vehicle chargepoint grant for renters or flat owners on the GOV.UK website.
Find out about the EV chargepoint grants for renters or flat owners to help towards the cost of installing an off-street electric vehicle chargepoint socket at eligible properties.
If you don’t have off-street parking, explore electric vehicle (EV) charging in Brighton & Hove, how to find your nearest EV charge point and how to request an EV charging bay in your street.
If you are looking for an electric vehicle for yourself or your business, learn more about the different types of electric vehicle, how they work and the benefits of owning one in the Energy Saving Trust’s electric vehicle guide.
Find out about EV chargepoint and infrastructure grants for commercial landlords. Commercial landlords can apply for up to 100 grants across multiple properties or for one property.