How to Improve Your Commercial EPC Rating in Wigan: Step-by-Step Guide

Need to improve your Commercial EPC rating in Wigan? Frequent reasons businesses do this are to reduce energy bills, improve sustainability or boost market appeal. However, the most common, is because they need to. Our Commercial EPC Assessors have put together this guide to improving your EPC score to help businesses in Wigan whatever the reason.

There is legislation that prevents commercial landlords from leasing properties below Band E on the EPC. We've gone in to detail about these Commercial EPC regulations for Wigan landlords in another article. Properties that fall into a G or F Band, need to be improved before it can be legally tenanted.

This commercial certificate is also used by mortgage providers to assist in making lending decisions. Most are shying away from those properties that do not meet the minimum rental standards. Some are even imposing higher benchmarks, using band D as the cut off.

On the opposite side of the stick, some lenders choose to incentivise lower environmental impact buildings. Reduced rates are common for properties with a Band C or higher. These properties are perceived as a lower risk investment. They comply with proposed future rental regulation changes and the occupiers are less likely to default on repayments due to lower operational costs and increased spare capital.

Practical Steps to Improve Your EPC

You've got two valuable sources of information available to you. Both your Commercial EPC and your Commercial EPC Assessor will be able to give you advice that is specific to your building. If you do not have an up-to-date assessment, getting one will give you a current benchmark—the calculations change frequently.

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Your assessor will be able to model various scenarios with different upgrades. This provides the information to direct budget towards the upgrades that will have the most cost effective impact on your score.

The ROI is multiple times greater than the cost of the Commercial EPC.

Fabric First Approach Commercial Building Upgrades

Always start any upgrade project with the structure of your building. It makes little sense to upgrade to the latest heating system if half of the heat it generates is lost through the roof.

Specifically, the walls, floors and roof of your building need to be well insulated.

Walls should either be cavity filled or have insulation applied internally or externally in the case of a solid wall. Suspended timber floors are usually pretty straightforward to insulate, unlike a solid floor. Current building regulations specify 270mm of insulation for loft spaces, which is one of the simplest, cheapest and most impactful upgrades you can make.

Once the fabric is fixed and energy loss has been minimised, move on to your services.

Commercial building services that are included within the EPC assessment are the heating, hot water and lighting. It also includes renewables, but its best to upgrade your services before adding these technologies.

Need an EPC refresher? We've created an article that goes into depth about Commercial EPC ratings and what they mean for your building in Wigan.

When we're completing a Commercial EPC Assessment for our customers in Wigan, to get a higher score, we ideally want to see the following services

• Heating: Ideally a newer gas boiler will be installed. Anything over 10 years old usually has a noticeable impact on the EPC score.
• Hot Water From The Boiler: A combi boiler is an efficient way of heating water. A cylinder can work too, but again, the more modern the better. It needs to be well insulated with a cylinder thermostat.
• Lighting: LED Bulbs throughout. They're cheap and can usually be retrofitted without major changes to your circuits.

After your services have been modernised, now is the time to consider how renewable technology can help your business. Electrical generation through solar panels or a wind turbine always has a strong positive impact on the EPC score. There are other options too. Solar water heating is starting to gain some traction as well as heat pumps. Heat pumps still use quite a bit of electricity, but if you pair it with a self generation system, like solar, this is when they shine!

Case studies have be complied by CIBSE, that show what impact upgrades have had on Commercial EPC Scores.

Organising Your Buildings Records For The EPC

If your EPC assessor cannot see and evidence an upgrade it cannot be included on the EPC. This rule makes it particularly tricky when it comes to recording wall insulation. This is also relevant to services where model numbers are missing from devices. Keeping evidence of your upgrades such as invoices and photographs helps your assessor both confirm their existence and attach a date. With these records, it makes it easy for this kind of hidden improvement to be included on the Commercial EPC.

Common Commercial EPC Challenges in Wigan

Wigan’s broad commercial property landscape presents a unique set of challenges when it comes to achieving higher EPC ratings for your commercial building. Older Victorian-era properties, particularly around Market Place (WN1), usually struggle due to a lack of upgrades to their original construction. They commonly feature solid brick walls, timber floors and loft spaces without insulation. This adds up to a significant impact on the EPC rating.

More modern industrial areas, like Martland Park (WN5), can face challenges with large open spaces, dated heating systems, and inefficient high bay lighting. Similarly, office spaces across Wigan often operate using old HVAC systems in a building without insulation, further dragging down their EPC ratings.

These inefficiencies directly affect both energy costs and EPC scores for businesses. Buildings with lower EPC ratings require more energy to maintain comfortable working conditions. For landlords, poor ratings limit marketability, as properties with higher running costs are less attractive to tenants.

Addressing these challenges by retrofitting insulation, upgrading lighting systems, or improving heating controls, can significantly improve EPC ratings and reduce energy costs. By tackling these common inefficiencies, Wigan’s businesses and property owners can meet regulatory standards and the Borough's sustainability goals.

Property Upgrade Grants Available to Wigan Businesses

Grants are available to help ease the burden on business owners. Wigan Borough, through the Greater Manchester Combined Authority have created schemes such as the Low Carbon Fund which aims to install renewable technologies across the region.

National opportunities for funding are available too. Projects such as the Boiler Upgrade Scheme enable small business owners to replace traditional gas and electric heating systems with a modern heat pump system.

Although the Green Business Fund is no longer available, the UK Government have allocated £5B to help businesses decarbonise and reduce their reliance on the energy infrastructure.

These schemes make upgrading your building and reducing energy costs more accessible.

Improving your commercial building's EPC rating in Wigan can be vital for both compliance and sustainability. While challenges exist, particularly for older properties and industrial spaces, there's a clear pathway to achieving better ratings through fabric improvements, service upgrades, and renewable technologies. With various funding schemes available to support these improvements, commercial property owners can enhance their EPC scores whilst retaining capital and increasing their properties value.

Ready to improve your commercial building's EPC rating? Contact our experienced assessors today for a comprehensive evaluation and personalised upgrade strategy.

01925 699 321