Ministers urged to rethink planning reforms that could ‘spell end’ of zero-carbon homes

However, the letter warns that this will limit councils’ ability to set local standards on energy efficiency and stop them from setting high environmental standards for new homes.

It points out that local authorities in some areas – such as Cornwall, Bath and North East Somerset, and Central Lincolnshire – require all new homes to be ‘zero carbon’ in operation, meaning the energy used to run a home once it has been built does not use any fossil fuels. 

“But proposed changes to the NPPF, which are currently being consulted on, would curtail local authorities from setting standards that go beyond building regulations,” the letter said.

While planned changes to the building regulations through the Future Homes Standard will be “a step forward”, the TCPA and others argue that this will not go far enough in achieving genuinely zero-carbon homes.

The letter calls on Mr Reed to rethink policy PM13 to make it clear that until building regulations universally achieve net-zero buildings, local planning authorities may adopt standards that go further.

Co-signatories to the letter include more than 40 local authorities; environmental NGOs, including UK100 and Friends of the Earth; and organisations and businesses at the forefront of the low-carbon buildings sector, including the UK Green Building Council, the Good Homes Alliance, LETI and Bioregional.

Lee Scott, cabinet member for housing, planning and regeneration at Essex County Council, said that the local authority has developed a “clear policy landscape” to deliver new homes that are cheaper to run and more resilient to a changing climate, and that generate as much renewable energy as they use.

He said: “Eight of our district councils have aligned their local plans to these standards, including the Uttlesford local plan, which the planning inspectors recently found to be sound, legally compliant and capable of adoption.

“This will lead to the delivery of over 145,000 healthy, energy-efficient, ‘net zero’ new homes by 2050.”

He added that Essex has shown that building to this high standard is “technically, legally and financially viable”, and the freedom of local authorities to set energy performance standards that go beyond building regulations should not be limited, but rather encouraged.

Hugh Ellis, director of policy at the TCPA, said: “Building regulations must be seen as a floor to increase standards across all new buildings, not a ceiling.

“The planning system is ideally placed to support more ambitious innovation on climate, and it is disappointing to see a downgrading of standards when the stakes couldn’t be higher.”

Christopher Hammond, chief executive of UK 100, said: “Councils across the UK want to deliver homes and buildings that are cheap to run and warmer places to be in.

“Across England, from Cornwall to Central Lincolnshire, they’ve spent years developing rigorous, evidence-based, viable plans to deliver comfortable, energy-efficient, affordable homes. The proposed NPPF would block this from happening in the future. 

“We are co-signing this letter, because local leaders need a planning system that matches their ambition – not one that centralises power in Whitehall forevermore and frustrates their power to deliver the homes their communities deserve.”

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has been approached for comment.