New Homes Target

Debate between Baroness Taylor of Stevenage and Baroness Butler-Sloss

Tuesday 21st October 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

I know the paper to which the noble Lord refers. With his ministerial experience, he will know that I cannot comment on leaked documents. However, let us make no mistake that London and the mayor are extremely ambitious about delivering the housing that London needs. The Government recognise its unique challenges, including higher build and labour costs, which have contributed to falls in starts and completions in the capital. We are working in partnership with the mayor and the GLA to accelerate housing delivery and are supporting the development of an ambitious next London Plan. We are already taking action to accelerate housebuilding through planning reform and unlocking large-scale developments such as at Euston. We are also supporting stalled sites in the capital via the new homes accelerator. London will be allocated up to 30% of the £39 billion social and affordable homes programme, granting approximately £11.7 billion to the GLA to support housing delivery in London.

[Baroness Butler-Sloss (CB)]

Just after the war, a large number of prefab houses were built, with great success, and they lasted very well. Is there any good reason why one could not put up a lot of prefabricated houses, which would go a long way towards this number the Government want?

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

I remember those days and know how fond some of the inhabitants of those prefabricated homes were. Things are moving on; we are now looking at modern methods of construction homes, which could make an important contribution. They deliver high-quality, energy-efficient homes more quickly while creating new and diverse jobs in the sector. We have undertaken bold action to support housebuilders, including in the modern methods of construction sector, reforming the planning system, unblocking sites and increasing supply. We have developed a publicly available specification for MMC homes, which will bring greater clarity to the insurance and warranties market and support the delivery of the quality homes we all want.

Housebuilders: Information Sharing

Debate between Baroness Taylor of Stevenage and Baroness Butler-Sloss

Tuesday 15th July 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

The issue of skills and capacity in planning departments has been a real focus of this Government since last July when we were elected. We know that that is one of the areas in which we need to support local authorities. We have put large sums of money into creating 300 new skilled planning roles in local government and improving the pipeline of planners coming through, as well as addressing some of the other skills issues in the sector, which we know are critical to delivering this. Lots of developers have mentioned the building safety regulator, which is another aspect to this, and the noble Lord may know that we have made rapid changes there. That is moving on very quickly now.

[Baroness Butler-Sloss (CB)]

My Lords, what are the Government doing to encourage more skills and expertise, which I gather are lacking?

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

The noble and learned Baroness is quite right. The age profile of some of the skilled workers in the construction sector is higher than we would want it to be. We have put £600 million into improving skills, setting up 10 new technical colleges so that we can encourage young people to take up trades in the construction industry. It is an exciting industry to be in, so I hope that they will follow that through. We are trying to encourage some of those people in the construction sector who are getting closer to retirement age to take on roles as trainers of young people, so that we pass on the skills of the current generation to the next generation.

Planning: Energy Efficiency and Fire Safety

Debate between Baroness Taylor of Stevenage and Baroness Butler-Sloss

Monday 23rd June 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

I do not know if the noble Lord was in the Chamber when I spoke about this last week, but we are aware of the building safety regulator’s difficulties. We have put in additional funding and are working with the regulator to improve performance, particularly on the gateway issues. It is very important that we get this balance right. We want our buildings to be safe, and the building safety regulator must be able to do its job properly. We also want to move things on for the development industry so that developers can get through the gateways as quickly as they can; both things are important. I will not give the noble Lord an exact date—I do not suppose he would have expected me to—but we are working with the building safety regulator to move this on as quickly as possible.

[Baroness Butler-Sloss (CB)]

My Lords, I am absolutely delighted about the solar panels measures, because I have been asking questions of this Government about the fact that locally, in east Devon, there is about to be a new town of 20,000 people with not a single solar panel on any of the buildings. How tough will the Government be in seeing that the solar panels regulations are actually carried out by entrepreneurs who have no desire whatever to put them on roofs.

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

As this is incorporated into the planning process, it will become part of how planning is done so that it will be put in from the outset. We will accelerate the specific types of infrastructure, including making sure that, as people put planning applications in, we look at them to make sure that buildings are fit for purpose, do not need retrofitting and will have solar panels and, where appropriate, ground source heat pumps. Our commitment is to get to net zero as quickly as we can while making sure the planning system is fit for purpose in delivering that across the country.