Built Environment Sector

Tuesday 28th October 2025 Lords Chamber

Question

14:48

Asked by

[Lord Pitkeathley of Camden Town]

To ask His Majesty’s Government, in the light of the report from New London Architecture The Built Environment Sector, published on 16 September, what assessment they have made of the economic value of the built environment sector and its role in the national economy.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Business and Trade and Department for Science, Information and Technology (Baroness Lloyd of Effra) (Lab)]

My Lords, His Majesty’s Government recognise the importance of the built environment. It contributes hundreds of billions of pounds annually to the UK economy, supports millions of jobs and underpins key areas such as housing, infrastructure and urban regeneration. It drives innovation, sustainability and regional development, making it essential to national growth, climate goals and global competitiveness. That is why the Government provide it with extensive support through funding, policy reforms, skills development and strategic planning.

[Lord Pitkeathley of Camden Town (Lab)]

I thank my noble friend the Minister for that reply and welcome her to her first Oral Questions. I also welcome plans to streamline judicial review for nationally significant infra- structure, where cases currently average 1.4 years. Given similar delays in housing and other planning cases during an acute housing crisis—I declare an interest as someone who is trying to build a new park in north London—does the Minister agree that comparable reforms should be considered more widely across the planning system, and will she explore whether the legislation currently before this House offers any scope to do so?

[Baroness Lloyd of Effra (Lab)]

I thank my noble friend for his active interest in this area. The nationally significant infrastructure projects regime is separate from other planning regimes and operates under different legislation. My noble friend will recognise that the Planning and Infrastructure Bill will speed up and streamline the delivery of new homes and critical infrastructure, supporting delivery of the Government’s plan for change milestones, building 1.5 million safe and decent homes in England, and fast-tracking 150 planning decisions for major economic infrastructure projects by the end of this Parliament.

[Earl Russell (LD)]

My Lords, we welcome this important report. It has highlighted the skills shortage of between 100,000 and 170,000 jobs needed annually to ensure that this sector continues to grow. As well as welcoming the Minister to her post, I ask her specifically what further actions the Government are taking to ensure that these skills gaps are filled, so that our economy can grow.

[Baroness Lloyd of Effra (Lab)]

The noble Earl makes an extremely important point. He will recall that, at the Spring Statement, the Government announced a £625 million package to boost construction skills. This aims to deliver up to 60,000 additional skilled workers and includes everything from foundation apprenticeships, the expansion of skills boot camps specially tailored for the construction industry and the establishment of construction technical excellence colleges. This will all be overseen by the Construction Skills Mission Board, which is a collaborative partnership.

[Baroness Winterton of Doncaster (Lab)]

My Lords, my noble friend the Minister has just set out very clearly the need for skilled construction workers to support the built environment agenda and the Government’s growth agenda. But could I push her a little further on how what she has just set out will tie in with Ed Miliband’s announcement last week about tech training hubs for the energy sector? All these things are vital for regional growth in areas such as Yorkshire and the Humber.

[Baroness Lloyd of Effra (Lab)]

My noble friend is right to draw our attention to this area. Ensuring that we have the workers to support a clean energy transition is essential and she will know that, last week, the department put out a very detailed plan—I commend it to all noble Lords—to address the skills gaps we have in 31 priority occupations. The plan will create well-paid, secure jobs with good workplace rights. Noble Lords will also be aware that, in the last few weeks, the Department for Education, the Department for Work and Pensions and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology has also published a skills White Paper, which shows just how joined up these projects to create skills will be. It includes details of the technical excellence colleges, which will specialise in these areas.

[Baroness Neville-Rolfe (Con)]

My Lords, I too very much welcome the Minister to her seat. Much of the historic success of the built environment has depended on small and medium-sized businesses: developers, architects, housebuilders, plumbers, planners and so on. What will the Minister do to bring down the regulatory and other barriers to their continued and, I hope, growing success?

[Baroness Lloyd of Effra (Lab)]

The noble Baroness makes another very important point. Over the past years, the nature of the construction market has changed and it is absolutely right to focus on small builders. There is a whole programme of support for SME builders, some of which is in the Planning and Infrastructure Bill. It includes streamlined planning rules for small sites to reduce bureaucracy around those kinds of approvals and new reforms to ease biodiversity net gain requirements, again for small sites. We are also making efforts on late payments, which can be particularly difficult for small businesses in the construction industry. The consultation proposes a package of measures, including specific measures to address the use of retentions in the industry.

[Lord Brennan of Canton (Lab)]

My Lords, my father was one of those who were known at the time as “McAlpine’s Fusiliers”, helping to build houses across this country, as many immigrants like him from Ireland did. When we talk about deregulation, can we ensure as a Government that that does not mean compromising on health and safety standards for construction workers, nor compromising on the standards of housing that we are building, so that we are building homes for the families of the future, not the slums of the future?

[Baroness Lloyd of Effra (Lab)]

My noble friend is absolutely right on that point. We need to have the right standards, skills and funding. Among the programmes the Government have in front of them, the affordable homes programme, for example, commits £39 billion over 10 years to build social and affordable housing, which will include low-interest loans and rent settlement reforms to support housing providers to provide those decent standards of housing across the country.

[Lord Sharpe of Epsom (Con)]

My Lords, the report argues that the built environment should form a core part of the Government’s industrial strategy. But, as we heard in our recent debate on steel, for Britain to have a strong industrial base, we must also foster a flexible, innovative and low-tax business environment if industrial policy is to thrive. Could the Minister give the House an assurance that the Government will not impose further tax increases on British businesses in the forthcoming Budget?

[Baroness Lloyd of Effra (Lab)]

I think the noble Lord knows that that is an issue the Treasury will be dealing with in due course.

[Lord Watts (Lab)]

My Lords, can the Minister give us an update on the practice, carried out for many years under the previous Government, of land banking by housing companies? Is she able to recall the promise that we would deal with this? Can she give us an update?

[Baroness Lloyd of Effra (Lab)]

This question is very pertinent. I am afraid that I cannot give him the full details on that right now, so, if I may, I promise to follow up in writing with him.

[Lord Boateng (Lab)]

My Lords, gardens play an important part in enhancing the built environment. Will the Minister bring her fresh eyes and keen intellect to the task of ensuring that we do not lose the Gardens Trust as a statutory consultee in these areas?

[Baroness Lloyd of Effra (Lab)]

My noble friend raises an interesting point, which I suspect has been raised in the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, but it is not one that I can respond to at this point. I apologise for that, but I will also follow up with him afterwards.

[Lord Wallace of Saltaire (LD)]

My Lords, may I ask about density of housing in the new built environment? I declare an interest: I live in a village that is almost entirely terraced housing and is therefore extremely dense, with a park and allotments round it so that there is public space. I am very struck that all the new developments I see up and down the valleys of west Yorkshire are spread out. This means that access to public transport, shops, et cetera, and normal social life, are much more difficult, because developers prefer to build separate houses for better-off people. Do the Government have a strategy towards density as a way of resisting the spread of housing across green spaces?

[Baroness Lloyd of Effra (Lab)]

The noble Lord raises some very interesting observations on density in the UK and in his local area. This is probably something that local planning authorities and developers are best placed to opine on, in consultation and taking into account the local area. One thing that the New Towns Taskforce stressed when coming up with its report was the importance of place and character. That is a really good basis for carrying on those discussions about the nature of communities and how they can really solidify around a physical space.