Sample document · EPC + Retrofit Roadmap · £169
Retrofit Roadmap: semi-detached house, Middlesbrough (TS5)
This is a real example, built from a genuine 2025 assessment of a Middlesbrough property, anonymised for privacy. Every rating, recommendation and cost below is as lodged on the national EPC register — this is exactly what you receive with a Roadmap order, for your own property.
1. Where this home stands
This property scores 60 (D) — slightly below the average of 62.6 across the 9,972 semi-detached homes of the same era we track in Middlesbrough. That's the North Yield difference: we analyse the Energy Performance of every home in the Tees Valley, so we can tell you how your property really compares — and what actually worked in homes like yours.
Its recommendations are typical too: 73% of the same-era semis we track across the Tees Valley are told the same thing about their floors — so the plan below is, in effect, the region's most common homework.
As a private rented home, this property is directly in scope of the 2030 rules: rentals must reach EPC C for new tenancies from 2028 and all tenancies by 2030. At a D today, doing nothing is not an option — but as the plan below shows, the gap is smaller and cheaper than most landlords fear.
2. The roadmap — step by step, points and all
The five measures below are the assessor's lodged recommendations in the register's official sequence — the order matters, because the "rating after" column is the modelled score once that step is complete (each step assumes the ones above it are done). For pure value for money, read the £-per-point column instead: it ranks every measure from the £20-a-point lighting to the £5,000-a-point solar water heating. Together they take this home from 60 (D) to 78 (C). Indicative costs are the national assessment model's standard ranges — not live quotes, and they can lag today's installer prices. Every Roadmap sanity-checks them against current Tees Valley trade prices before you budget a penny.
| # | Measure | Indicative cost | Rating after | Saves / year | £ / point | Phase |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Floor insulation (suspended timber floor) 1950s semis lose real heat through uninsulated suspended floors — but the indicative cost prices the insulation, not the making-good. If there's an accessible void below, it's fitted from underneath: no carpets touched, cost as quoted. If floors must come up from above, allow for floor coverings refitting on top (older carpets rarely survive relaying) and schedule between tenancies. Our assessor checks the void access during the visit — it's the difference between a £900 no-brainer and a job to plan around. | £800 – £1,200* | 63 (+3) | £122 | £333 value #3 | 1 — quick win |
| 2 | Low energy lighting throughout The classic first move — trivial cost, one point, and it pays for itself inside the year. | £20 | 64 (+1) | £23 | £20 value #1 | 1 — quick win |
| 3 | Heating controls — room thermostat and TRVs Proper controls stop the boiler heating rooms nobody's in. The best £-per-point measure on this certificate — four points for under £450. | £350 – £450 | 68 (+4) | £166 | £100 value #2 | 1 — quick win |
| 4 | Solar water heating One point for £4,000+ — honestly the weakest value on the list, and we'd say so. Worth pricing only after everything else. | £4,000 – £6,000 | 69 (+1) | £47 | £5,000 value #5 | 2 — bigger project |
| 5 | Solar photovoltaic panels (2.5 kWp) The big one: nine points and £422 a year in generation. If Phase 1 leaves you short of a C, this is the measure that settles it. | £3,500 – £5,500 | 78 (+9) | £422 | £500 value #4 | 2 — bigger project |
Phase 1 — the sensible start: £1,170 – £1,670*
Floor insulation, lighting and heating controls take the modelled score from 60 to 68 — one point short of a C — while cutting the tenant's bills by around £311 a year. That single-point gap is exactly why we re-assess after Phase 1: real installations can outperform the model, and if the property lands on 69, you're done for a fraction of the full-list cost.
*Measure costs only. If the floor insulation has to go in from above rather than via the void, budget for floor-covering refitting on top — we confirm which applies during the assessment.
Phase 2 — the renewables: £7,500 – £11,500
Solar PV and solar water heating complete the modelled path to 78 — comfortably into the C band — and add another £469 a year in savings and generation. But note the split: PV alone is nine points and £422 of that. If Phase 1 leaves you short, PV is the decider; the solar water heating is one point for £4,000+, and we'd tell you so.
Where Phase 1 leaves you
one point short of a C£1,700 of work gets this home to the line — and the register's only listed route across it starts at £3,500. Section 3 is about crossing it for less →
£-per-point uses the mid-point of each indicative cost range (floor insulation before any making-good). Honest caveat: modelled scores are produced by the national RdSAP methodology and individual results vary with workmanship and property condition. Where the modelled path to C is uncertain, we say so — and recommend a re-assessment after Phase 1 before spending another pound.
3. Finding the missing point — without spending thousands
Here's what the certificate can't tell you: its five recommendations aren't every route to a C. They're what the national software's fixed menu triggers for this house. A one-point gap has cheaper answers, and checking them — in this order — is the heart of what this report is for.
Paperwork, not building work
Where an assessor can't verify a feature, the model assumes the worst. Genuine documentation — installation certificates, building-regs sign-offs, boiler paperwork — lets a re-assessment credit what's actually there. Homes sitting one point off a band boundary are rescued this way all the time, for the cost of a folder rummage.
Small measures the menu skips
The auto-generated list doesn't include everything that scores: hot-water cylinder insulation, draught-proofing and similar small measures each nudge the model. Small is exactly what a one-point gap needs.
Right-size the solar
The register offers a full 2.5 kWp array at £3,500–£5,500 — but panels aren't all-or-nothing. A much smaller array can find one or two points for a fraction of the cost. The menu only sells the full-fat version; a person can spec the minimum viable panel.
Re-assess before spending more
The 68 is a modelled midpoint, and quality installations can outperform it. After Phase 1 and the steps above, a re-assessment may simply land on 69 — and if you're weighing a specific combination of measures, we can model it for your property rather than guessing from the standard list.
To be clear: none of this is about talking an assessor into a number. Assessments are independent and evidence-based — the point is making sure the evidence exists to be counted.
4. The 2030 position
Rented homes must reach EPC C by 2030 (new tenancies from 2028), with a proposed spending cap of £10,000. This property's full five-measure path (£8,670 – £13,170) brushes that cap — but the likely route to a C doesn't require all five measures. That's exactly what the phased plan is for: spend £1,700 first, re-assess, and only go further if the numbers say so.
Our plain-English 2030 guide →5. Funding worth checking
Depending on the tenant's circumstances and the property's council-tax band, insulation measures may qualify for support under the Great British Insulation Scheme or ECO4 — which can turn the floor-insulation line above into a £0 item. Every Roadmap includes an eligibility check against the live schemes at the time of writing.
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