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Government should not limit supply with ‘unnecessarily strict’ net zero targets, says minister
The government will not bring forward sustainability standards for new build housing because of fears that it would have an “unintended consequence” on the number of homes being built, a minister has indicated.
A government minister has indicated there are no plans to bring forward the Future Homes Standard due to fears over the impact on supply #UKhousingSpeaking at a session of the Housing, Communities and Local Government (HCLG) Committee yesterday afternoon, Eddie Hughes said it is important that the government ensures the country does not begin building fewer homes as a result of “unnecessarily strict” climate change targets.
The housing and rough sleeping minister was responding to a question about whether the government should bring forward the implementation of its Future Homes Standard, which will require all new homes being built after 2025 to be “zero carbon ready”.
Mr Hughes said: “I understand the ambition that people feel to move as quickly as possible, but to a degree we have to balance that with some other things.
“So for example we need to have those houses built. We have an urgent demand for more houses in this country across all tenures so we need to make sure that we don’t in any way kind of have the unintended consequences of building far fewer homes because we’re meeting unnecessarily strict targets.”
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He added that the Future Homes Standard is still being implemented 25 years before the government’s 2050 net zero target and claimed homes currently being delivered are mostly being built to a standard where they will require minimal retrofitting.
Recent government figures show that just 2% of the new homes being built are being built to a standard of EPC A, which is the highest energy efficiency standard a building can achieve in terms of fuel costs and carbon dioxide emissions.
During the same HCLG Committee session today, MPs probed Lord Callanan, a minister within the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, about the government’s Green Homes Grant voucher scheme, which was shut down in March with less than 5% of its allocated budget spent.
Lord Callanan said the scheme was not one of his department’s “finest stories” and cited the short timescales imposed by the Treasury and the overcomplication of the policy as reasons for its failure.
However, he said the Local Authority Delivery side of the Green Homes Grant, which sees councils deliver improvements within low-income households, was working “extremely well”.
The first two phases of the scheme are expected to deliver upgrades within 50,000 to 55,000 homes, and bids for a third phase are now being considered, the minister said.
Earlier this year Inside Housing reported that councils were struggling to meet the deadlines for the scheme, which local authority figures described as “unrealistic”.
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