What the rule says
The government response, "Improving the energy efficiency of socially rented homes in England", was published on 1 April 2026. Its core requirement is short: "All new or existing properties must have an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) 'C' or higher, against any one EPC metric by 1 April 2030 using reformed EPCs, unless a valid exemption applies."
A second deadline follows. Social housing providers must also meet EPC C or higher against a second EPC metric by 1 April 2039, again using reformed EPCs and again subject to exemptions. Both dates rest on the reformed certificate rather than the one landlords and homeowners see today, which is why the overhaul of how EPCs are calculated is the piece of background that makes the rest of this legible. This is an England-only rule and a social rented sector rule. It does not touch owner-occupiers.
Fabric first was dropped, and that is the story
Here is the line that changes what this means for windows. The government response says: "Providers will no longer be required to deliver the fabric metric first and will have a free choice of which metric they choose to meet (smart, heat or fabric) by 2030 and 2039."
Read that plainly. A social landlord can reach EPC C on the heating metric alone, or the smart readiness metric alone, and never touch the glazing. There is no compulsory glazing programme buried in this deadline, and anyone telling you otherwise is selling something. Fabric is one of three routes, not the route.
The response does not leave fabric unmentioned, though. It adds: "Where properties have insufficient fabric insulation, we encourage providers to prioritise compliance via fabric upgrades. However, where other metrics could provide greater benefits to tenants, for example greater bill savings, social housing providers will have the flexibility to choose." That is an encouragement with a tenant-outcome test attached, not an instruction.
On workmanship the position is similar. Government says that while it is not mandating PAS compliance as part of this standard, it encourages it. So the retrofit quality framework is a strong nudge rather than a condition of compliance, which puts the burden on providers to specify properly themselves.
How this compares with the private rented sector
The two tenures are now running different rules, and the differences are not cosmetic. Private rentals in England and Wales have a single compliance date of 1 October 2030 under a dual-metric standard, with a fabric performance standard first, followed by landlord discretion to meet either a heating system standard or a smart readiness standard. We covered that in full in our piece on the EPC C deadline for private landlords.
- Date. Social rented, 1 April 2030. Private rented, 1 October 2030. The social sector deadline lands six months earlier.
- Metric choice. Social providers choose freely between smart, heat and fabric. Private landlords must clear the fabric standard first, and it is not substitutable.
- Second stage. Social providers face a second metric by 1 April 2039. The private rented standard is dual-metric from the 2030 date itself.
So the tenure with the earlier deadline has the looser rule on fabric. For a windows business that is an awkward result to report honestly, but it is the result. A private landlord with a cold, single-glazed terrace has to engage with fabric. A social provider with the same house can, in principle, meet the 2030 date another way.
The £10,000 spend exemptions
Cost is capped in effect rather than in name. The response states: "Each property will have a spend exemption of £10,000 for the first metric and £10,000 for the second metric. Each exemption will last for 10-years from the compliance date."
The mechanics are set out clearly. If a provider spends up to £10,000 trying to get a property to EPC C on their first chosen metric by 2030 and it still does not meet the standard, they can employ an exemption that lasts until 2040. The same applies on the second metric: spend up to £10,000 by 2039, fall short, and the exemption runs to 2049. That is a per-property, per-metric budget with a long tail, and it shapes which measures get specified. Ten thousand pounds does not stretch far across a whole-house retrofit, so providers will pick the measure that moves the chosen metric furthest per pound.
This is not a sector-wide emergency
It would be easy to write this up as a crisis in social housing stock. The primary text does not support that. Government says: "Whilst the average EPC scores across homes in the SRS compare favourably to other tenures, there remain significant levels of fuel poverty in homes below EPC C." Social housing is, on average, better rated than other tenures. The problem is concentrated in the tail, not spread across the whole portfolio.
The benefit government expects is stated in the same terms: "we expect that SRS MEES will lift around 323,000 households out of fuel poverty in England by 2030." That is a meaningful number attached to a targeted problem, and it sits alongside the funding commitments in the Warm Homes Plan, which is where most of the money for this kind of work is coming from. We track how the schemes shift in our running double glazing news and policy updates.
My read, and it is a read rather than reporting: the free choice of metric will push a lot of providers towards heating first, because a heat pump is one line on a purchase order and a window programme is forty. But on the worst stock I would still start with the glass and the draughts. Put a new heating system into a leaky box and the tenant gets a smaller bill saving than the spreadsheet promised, and you have spent the £10,000 either way.
Tom Bradley, window installer
Where windows actually fit
For the bottom end of the stock, fabric is often the only realistic route rather than one option among three. If a home is well below EPC C because of old glazing and poor insulation, the heating and smart readiness metrics have less headroom to make up the difference, and government has said in terms that it encourages fabric upgrades where fabric insulation is insufficient. That is the segment where glazing budgets are most likely to hold up.
If you are sizing that work, the number that matters is how much heat the existing windows are losing, which is what U-values measure, and what the replacement would save, which our energy savings calculator estimates for a given house. Tenants asking their landlord about upgrades can also check what support exists in our guide to double glazing grants, though the funding picture for individual households is separate from the duty on providers, and the schemes that fund it move often enough that our double glazing news and policy updates are the place to check before assuming a route is still open.
Source: GOV.UK, "Improving the energy efficiency of socially rented homes in England: government response", published 1 April 2026.
Frequently asked questions
By 1 April 2030. The government response says all new or existing properties must have an EPC of C or higher, against any one EPC metric, using reformed EPCs, unless a valid exemption applies. A second metric must be met by 1 April 2039.
No. The fabric-first requirement was dropped for this sector. Providers have a free choice of which metric they meet, smart, heat or fabric, so a home can reach EPC C on the heating or smart readiness metric without any glazing work. Government does encourage fabric upgrades where a property has insufficient fabric insulation.
Two differences matter. The date: 1 April 2030 for social rented homes against 1 October 2030 for private rentals in England and Wales. And the structure: private landlords must meet a fabric performance standard first and only then choose between heating and smart readiness, while social providers choose freely between all three.
Each property has a spend exemption of £10,000 for the first metric and £10,000 for the second. Each exemption lasts 10 years from the compliance date, so a first-metric exemption claimed in 2030 runs to 2040, and a second-metric exemption claimed in 2039 runs to 2049.
Not as a requirement. The government response says that while it is not mandating PAS compliance as part of the social rented sector standard, it encourages it.
No. The government response notes that average EPC scores across homes in the social rented sector compare favourably to other tenures, while adding that significant levels of fuel poverty remain in homes below EPC C. Government expects the standard to lift around 323,000 households out of fuel poverty in England by 2030.