The lettings chief in a prominent regional agency says she’s delighted that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has done a dramatic U-turn on some net zero initiatives.

Those measures dropped include obliging landlords to spend heavily on improving the energy efficiency of rental properties within the next two years.

Gabrielle Argue, head of lettings at DM & Co Homes, says removing the threat of legal action against buy to let investors, along with a more persuasive approach, would be good news for already hard-pressed landlords.

She says: “Dropping the stick and offering a bigger carrot is a major step in the right direction by Rishi Sunak. It’s important that the government is still committed to achieving net zero by 2050, but incentivising energy efficiency rather than mandating it is a reasonable, grown up and admirable stance for the prime minister to take.

“Forcing landlords to upgrade the energy performance certificate rating of their properties would have been incredibly expensive, especially given the age of the majority of rented property across the UK.

“Ruling out any such legislation will provide some much-needed relief to hard-pressed landlords, many of whom have been extremely worried by the potential investment needed to at a time when their budgets are so squeezed.”

Instead of legislation forcing energy efficiencies, Sunak has announced that the boiler upgrade scheme will be increased from £5,000 to £7,500 – although the total size of the fund remains the same. This grant is available to support the installation of heat pumps and biomass boilers in homes and non-domestic buildings in England and Wales.

Argue continues: “We welcome this move to incentivise and encourages landlords rather than penalise them, and increasing the grant by 50 per cent is a much better offer given the costs involved. This will allow the sector to plan these improvements on an affordable schedule, which is much more palatable for landlords with large portfolios.”