CSR Sustain delivers MEES Benchmarking for 200 Trafford Centre Shop Units

As the UK’s third largest indoor shopping centre, The Trafford Centre in Manchester spans more than 176,000 sqm and 200 shop units, and Pradera Lateral is the international asset management company responsible for them all.

Like other commercial property managers across the UK, Pradera Lateral was facing significant challenges resulting from the government’s updated MEES regulations. The new rules require all non-domestic rented buildings without a valid exception to be EPC rated E by April 2023, C by 2027 and B by 2030, with the penalty for each non-complying property reaching up to £150,000.

When Pradera Lateral brought in CSR Sustain to help address these risks, we recommended the following actions in priority order:

1. Prepare and put in place a valid EPC for all properties currently marketed for sale or let
2. Prepare an EPC in advance of forthcoming lease renewals
3. Audit all buildings currently let out with EPCs rated F and G
4. Risk assess those buildings that are potentially F or G rated
5. Carry out a MEES study to quantify costs and exemptions prior to April 2023
6. Recommended upgrades where appropriate
7. List all buildings currently under longer leasehold (post 2023)
8. Carry out energy assessments on these to prove they are E rated or above in advance of April 2023

Working closely with both Pradera Lateral and the managing agents, Savills, our experts undertook the EPC benchmarking of every shop unit in the centre. That included arranging access to each unit in risk priority order, before undertaking 200 EPCs.

As a result, we were able to bring 100 units up to standard as part of a staged delivery that was completed prior to the key deadline of February 2023.

Gary Cleary, managing director of CSR Sustain, said: “It was essential for Pradera Lateral that they had complete visibility and understanding of every stage of our project together. The final outcome was our successfully bringing every unit in the Trafford Centre up to EPC compliance in line with the updated MEES regulations.”

"We have relied on CSR Sustain for support many times in the past, so we knew we could trust their expertise and advice when it came to implementing the right EPC solution. Gary and the team made working with them easy, and we were extremely happy with how efficiently they were able to get our units up to standard."

Sadiq Tania - Shop Fit Manager at Pradera Lateral

The CSR Sustain advantage

We excel in providing practical support to help clients tackle the myriad of complex regulation and legislation that impact on commercial energy and building performance. We will:

  • Provide a succinct property list on request that includes – at minimum – the address, expiry date, EPC rating and live link to the EPC register
  • Prioritise properties and carry out energy assessments
  • Standardise address formats across your portfolio
  • Provide expiry date reminders
  • Maintain quality of inputs for generic site information, such as fabric and HVAC
  • Provide MEES studies and advice on lowest cost improvements to achieve higher ratings
  • Calculate improvement measures with ROI of over 7 years
  • Manage exemption registers and renewals

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With CSR Sustain, you’re always speaking directly to an experienced, close-knit team of experts who work hard to understand your business inside-out. Call today or send a message and we will be in touch within 24hrs.

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