Asked by: Baroness Freeman of Steventon (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to incorporate requirements for bird-safe designs, such as fritted or UV-reflective glass, into future building design legislation.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
Whilst there are no current plans on requirements for fritted or UV glass, our revised National Planning Policy Framework expects developments to provide net gains for biodiversity, including through incorporating features which support priority or threatened species such as swifts, bats and hedgehogs. The National Design Guide, National Model Design Code and Natural England’s Green Infrastructure Framework set out how development can incorporate a range of nature friendly features including swift bricks.
The Building Regulations are designed to protect human safety by ensuring buildings are structurally sound, fire-resistant, and meet health and accessibility standards. They are not designed to directly address animal welfare.
Asked by: Baroness Freeman of Steventon (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have formulated an evaluation plan for the Renters’ Rights Bill; and if so, what are their outcome measures and evidence gaps, and how the proposed landlord database will support the evaluation plan in its design and contents.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
We have set out in our Renters’ Rights Bill Impact Assessment our plans for a phased approach to monitoring and evaluating the legislation, in line with the Department’s Evaluation Strategy.
During the preparation phase we will develop further the framework for evaluating the outcomes we expect to see, and to identify and resolve any data gaps. A range of existing data, and new data generated from the reforms themselves, will be used for evaluation. This will include data from the Private Rented Sector Database.
Asked by: Baroness Freeman of Steventon (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government, with regard to their research paper Adapting historic homes for energy efficiency: a review of the barriers published on 3 January, what targets they have for training, recruiting, and retaining specialist local authority conservation officers; and what plans they have for achieving any such targets.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Government has no specific targets relating to specialist local authority conservation officers. I refer the noble lady to the answer given to PQ 16501 on 5 December 2024 set out details of the Government’s investment to support capacity and capability in local authorities more generally. This will be further underpinned by increases in planning fees that will help improve the resourcing of planning application services, so that local planning authorities can fund the skills they need, including conservation officers.