Overview

With a median Commercial EPC rating of C - 75, commercial properties in London are more energy efficient than the English average of D - 77. This report contains UK wide and London specific commercial EPC data compiled from publicly available government data sources and analysed by our team.

City Comparison

London is also one of the most efficient cities out of the top 10 largest cities (by population) in England for commercial EPCs, the least efficient in our list being the cities of Bristol and Stoke-on-Trent

Borough Efficiency

Which London boroughs are the most and least efficient?

The London borough with the most efficient commercial properties is Newham with a median commercial EPC rating of 69-C, the second most efficient of any local authority in England or Wales (The Isles of Scilly being first). The London borough with the least efficient commercial properties is Kensington and Chelsea with a median commercial EPC rating of 79 - D

List of London boroughs commercial median efficiency:

Median commercial EPC ratings in London

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Fuel Sources

The main fuel source used for heating non-domestic properties in England is mains electricity with 53% of the 1,476,552 commercial EPCs we analysed using it as a main fuel source, mains gas was the main fuel source for an additional 39% of commercial properties. The remaining properties used other types of fuel such as community heating schemes, LPG or biofuels like wood.

Properties with mains gas as a main fuel source tend to have worse EPC ratings on average than properties with mains electricity as a fuel source. This is because systems which use mains gas are calculated to be less efficient in the SBEM calculations than systems which use mains electricity and using mains gas also decreases EPC ratings further as it typically causes a larger amount of CO2 to be released than other fuel sources.

We analysed 241,331 commercial EPC records in the London area and found that 59% had mains electricity as a main fuel source and 36% used mains gas as a main fuel source.

The London borough which had the fewest commercial properties which used mains gas as a main fuel source was Kensington and Chelsea, with only 29% of properties having mains gas as a main fuel source. The London borough with the highest percent of commercial properties which used mains gas as a main fuel source was Sutton with 45% of properties having mains gas as a main fuel source.

Future Legislation

As of July 2025, the current Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards (MEES) require non-domestic private rented properties in England to have an EPC rating of at least E since April 2023, with a 7-year payback rule for improvements and penalties up to £150,000 for non-compliance. Exemptions include high cost, third-party consent, and property devaluation, valid for 5 years.

The UK government is consulting on proposed legislation to raise standards, potentially implementing new EPC metrics (fabric performance, heating system, smart readiness) from 2026, requiring new tenancies to meet a minimum EPC rating of C by 2027 and all tenancies to achieve EPC B by 2030, with a proposed cost cap of £10,000 and penalties up to £30,000. We analysed 1,321,223 non-domestic EPCs for privately rented London properties and found that 49% are currently below a C rating – if the proposed legislation goes through, all of these properties will require upgrades to HVAC, lighting, or their construction to improve their EPC rating.

All data used in this report was taken from Government open data.

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