Government proposals to force landlords to pay up to £10,000 to improve the energy efficiency of rental properties are “misguided”, says the National Residential Landlords Association.

All new tenancies in the private rented sector should be in houses with an energy performance certificate rating of C or better by 2025, according to a consultation paper by the Department of Business, Energy, & Industrial Strategy.

It proposed that this standard should apply to all private rented properties by 2028, added the consultation document, which closed in January.

The paper also said that landlords should pay up to £10,000 to make the necessary improvements.

But the NRLA warns that the sum owners are expected to pay “is based on a misguided assumption that all landlords are property tycoons with deep pockets”.

The landlord’s body says that private landlords make an average net income from property of less than £4,500 a year.

It adds that across England, over 58% of private rented households have an energy rating below a C. And 32% of private rented homes were built before 1919, which it says are some of the hardest housing to improve in the country.

The NRLA calls for the amount that landlords should contribute to energy efficiency be linked to average market rents in any given area – known as broad rental market areas – calculated by the Valuation Office Agency.

It says this would mean the amount a landlord would need to contribute would gradually taper from £5,000 to £10,000, taking into account different rental values – and by implication, property values – across the country.

The body also calls for a package of fiscal measures to support investment. It says this should include the development of a decarbonisation tax allowance, no longer applying VAT to energy efficiency and low carbon work, and not charging council tax where energy improvements are being made to rental properties when they are empty.

NRLA chief executive Ben Beadle says: “We all want to see as many energy efficient rental properties in the sector as possible.

“Besides being good for tenants, improvements made to rental properties ensure they become more attractive to prospective tenants when being marketed by landlords and agents.

“However, the government’s proposals for the sector are not good enough.

“They rely on a misguided assumption that landlords have unlimited sums of money and fail to accept the realities of different property and rental values across the country.

“Ministers need a smarter approach with a proper financial package if they are to ensure their ambitious objectives are to be met.”