What a plan can and can't tell you
What Plan C is
Plan C reads the energy performance certificate (EPC) already published for your home and works out the cheapest set of improvements from that certificate that should get it to band C. It's guidance to help you decide what to ask installers and assessors for.
We aren't EPC assessors, surveyors, installers, solicitors or regulated financial advisers, and we never visit the home. A plan isn't legal, financial or surveying advice, an EPC or a quote. We don't install anything or take fees from installers.
Where the score comes from
Every EPC gives the home an energy efficiency score from 1 to 100. Band C starts at 69. An accredited assessor visits the home and enters what they find into the government's approved calculation (RdSAP). It models the home under standard conditions. It isn't a measure of your actual bills.
The certificate also lists improvements in a fixed order, each with a typical cost and the score the home would reach after that step. We read all of this from the official register. Every score in a plan is labelled one of two ways:
- From the certificate: the plan follows the certificate's steps in order, so the scores are the assessor's own figures.
- Estimated: the cheapest route skips or reorders steps, so we add up each step's gain. That ignores how some measures interact, so we aim at least 2 points above the line.
How reliable it is
The plan is only as good as the certificate. It can be up to 10 years old, it won't show work done since, and it can contain mistakes. Two assessors can score the same home a few points apart, and a new EPC uses the current method and its own survey. Costs are the national typical ranges printed on the certificate, priced in the year it was made. Your quotes will depend on the home, the area and the installer.
We've tested the method on 46 real certificates, but not yet against homes where the work was then done and reassessed. So use the plan as a starting point: get quotes, and a new EPC to prove the result. A new EPC replaces your current one even if it scores lower, so don't reassess a home that already shows C without a reason.
The rules can still change
Today the legal minimum for letting is band E. The move to band C from 1 October 2030 is the government's confirmed policy (response of 21 January 2026), but Parliament hasn't passed it yet. The details our plans rely on, including the 30 September 2029 date, the £10,000 cap and the evidence an exemption needs, could change before then. We keep each rule with its source and update plans when the rules change, but we can't promise the final rules will match.
Exemptions aren't automatic. You register them yourself on the PRS Exemptions Register, with evidence, and local councils enforce the rules.
Grants
We show schemes that might apply and their conditions as we last checked them, on 11 October 2026. Schemes open, close and run out of money, and the scheme or its installer decides who qualifies. A grant shown in a plan isn't an offer.
Your decisions
You're responsible for decisions about your property and for meeting the law. We check our sources carefully, but we can't guarantee a plan is complete or right for your home.
Landlord quotes on this site
The quotes on our home page are public reader comments from Property118, copied word for word with names removed. We keep a record of where each one was posted. The people who wrote them aren't connected to Plan C and don't endorse it.
Data and licences
EPC data comes from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government's energy performance register, under the Open Government Licence v3.0. We use address data for a permitted purpose: helping landlords manage properties to improve their energy efficiency (licence terms). The notice that comes with it:
MHCLG has published the address data with the consent of Ordnance Survey and Royal Mail Group Limited; Ordnance Survey and Royal Mail Group Limited reserve all their respective copyright, database rights, trademarks and other intellectual property rights.