Landlords: Have you made efficiency upgrades to see your EPC rating go down?

The EPC assessment is a classic scam in is own right. We are now one of the very few portfolio landlords in the country whose entire portfolio of properties has an EPC rating of C or better. It took us 3 years and tactical thinking on how to achieve this. We moved from one opportunity to another, fixing LED lights first, then the insulation between walls and in the roof space, then focused on the thermostat being used in the house and finally on the boiler/heating system. Consciously choosing upgrades that would be the easiest and cheapest to achieve first and then moving upwards to progressively more expensive stuff. This charade is however wholely unnecessary if the government comes up with a fool proof plan for energy efficiency improvements. The current EPC methodology is only a tick box exercise. Perhaps a reduction in SDLT on the sale of properties that perform poorly on the EPC scale would give investors sufficient impetus to buy on the condition of fixing them before renting.