Rented homes that moved up to EPC C: the 12 months to 12 October 2026

How many rented homes moved up to C this year?

328,566 privately rented homes had a new certificate lodged in the 12 months to 12 October 2026. 268,774 of them had an earlier certificate to compare with. Of those, 87,342 moved up into C and 10,496 slipped below it. The net is 76,846 homes, or about 211 a day across the window.

These are moves on the newest certificate. The register does not record why a rating changed, so this page does not say how many of these homes were upgraded. Across every tenure, 332,906 homes moved up into C in the same window.

Is that fast enough for the proposed 2030 standard?

Government has said it intends to require EPC band C in the private rented sector in England and Wales from 1 October 2030. That is confirmed policy, not yet law. The minimum EPC band you must meet to let a property in England and Wales today is E. That has been the case since 1 April 2020.

The site’s figure for the pace that proposal needs is 1,271 homes a day. It divides the privately rented homes below C on the register by the number of days from the extract date to 1 October 2030, rounded. The register-visible net over the last 12 months is about 211 a day, which is below that figure.

At the same net pace, the 1.8 million privately rented homes below C would take about 24.0 yearsto clear. That is arithmetic on the last 12 months’ net.

Three limits apply to that comparison.

• The register only sees homes that got a new certificate. Homes improved without one are invisible, and some moves may come from a change of assessor or method rather than works. So the net figure is the register-visible pace, and this data cannot say how far it sits from the true pace of upgrades.
• Tenure is as recorded on the newest certificate. Homes may have changed tenure between certificates, in either direction.
• The needed pace is a straight-line division. It ignores homes that would be exempt and homes that leave or join the private rented sector.

What changed on the certificates?

82,235 of the 87,342 homes that moved up into C, or 94.2%, show a recorded improvement: at least one element rating is better than before, or solar PV appears. The rest show no improved element on the certificate. The register cannot say whether those moves came from works, a different assessor, a re-measurement or the assessment method.

The median gain among the homes that moved up into C was 11 SAP points.

Many of these comparisons span a long gap. For 69.0% of the homes that moved up into C (60,266 homes), the previous certificate was lodged 10 or more calendar years earlier. Assessment methods changed over that span, so a rating difference between a certificate from 10 or more years ago and a new one is not a like-for-like measure of the building.

Did the new RdSAP 10 method cause the rise?

RdSAP 10, the assessment method for existing homes, took effect on 15 June 2025. The date comes from the Secretary of State’s GOV.UK notice of approval (15 June 2025), which approves the RdSAP10 edition for existing dwellings in England and Wales. Our RdSAP 10 guide covers what changed in the method.

A method change should show up as a step in the monthly rate, because every certificate lodged from that date uses it. The rate of privately rented homes with a new and an earlier certificate that moved up into C rose from 26.1% in April 2024 to 34.0% in September 2026. The months either side of June 2025 sit close together in the table below, and the movement was already under way before the new method began. The method change does not explain the pattern on its own.

That does not rule out some effect. The rate check cannot separate a small method effect from the underlying trend, and it covers only homes that were re-certified.