Solar Panels

Debate between Baroness Taylor of Stevenage and Baroness Hayman

Wednesday 12th February 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Hayman (CB)]

My Lords, I declare my interest as chair of Peers for the Planet. The Minister’s remarks about the consultation and its results were extremely encouraging and I am grateful to her for them. She spoke about the role of solar panels in the Government’s clean energy mission, but does she agree with me that, particularly for industrial buildings, the fitting of solar panels makes economic and financial sense and gives the people working in those businesses and buildings both energy sufficiency and lower bills?

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

I agree with the noble Baroness that the fitting of more efficient energy methods contributes to both the energy security of our country and the efficiency of those buildings. It is very important that we focus on that as much as we can and we will do all we can to encourage that with non-domestic buildings. Some technical issues came up as part of the consultation responses—we had 2,000 responses, including some on the fitting of solar panels to roofs and other efficiency measures—and it is important that we look at them before we issue our statement.

Future Homes Standard

Debate between Baroness Taylor of Stevenage and Baroness Hayman

Wednesday 29th January 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Hayman (CB)]

My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question standing in my name on the Order Paper and I declare my interest as chair of Peers for the Planet.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (Baroness Taylor of Stevenage) (Lab)]

I thank the noble Baroness for her Question and for all the work that she does on environmental issues. The Future Homes Standard consultation, setting out proposals for new energy efficiency standards, closed last year. We received over 2,000 responses and we are carefully considering the feedback received. I do understand that the space caused by the election has caused more delay than we had hoped for, and the frustration and the need for creating some certainty here about what we are going to do going ahead. But we will publish our government response to the consultation and lay the associated legislation later this year. Those new standards will effectively preclude the use of gas boilers in future new-build homes and ensure they become zero carbon as the electricity grid fully decarbonises, without the need for any retrofitting.

[Baroness Hayman (CB)]

I am grateful to the Minister for that response. The bit I picked out was “later this year”. We are in January and, as she acknowledged, we have been waiting a long time for this. So I encourage her to have a government response to the consultation as soon as possible. Does she agree that the abandoning of energy efficiency standards that took place a decade ago has caused great damage to many people and has caused great costs to householders, and indeed to the Treasury for the support it had to give during the energy crisis? When the Government do respond to the consultation, will they ensure that the standards set are aimed at providing the lowest possible bills for householders and will avoid their need, to which she referred, for retrofitting?

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

I agree that we need to move on as quickly as possible with all of this, for three key reasons. We need to make sure that bills are kept as low as possible, particularly for those in fuel poverty who we are very conscious of, and the move to clean energy will help us with that. We also need to think about our energy security and we need to continue the drive towards net zero. I appreciate the frustration in delivering this, and when I say “later this year”, I want to reassure the noble Baroness that we are working with our colleagues in DESNZ as quickly as possible to deliver this, to set homes and buildings on a path away from the use of fossil fuels and to future-proof homes with low-carbon heating and high levels of building fabric standards, ensuring that they do not require any retrofitting to become zero carbon. We are working very hard on that and it is my mission to deliver that as quickly as possible.

Planning Reforms: Net-zero Carbon Emissions

Debate between Baroness Taylor of Stevenage and Baroness Hayman

Tuesday 3rd December 2024 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

I am afraid I do not agree with that statement. We do need to reduce the carbon emissions in this country, and our Government have a clear mission to do that. It runs through every departmental objective, particularly in my department in the delivery of new homes.

[Baroness Hayman (CB)]

My Lords, I declare my interests as set out in the register. High standards of energy efficiency not only reduce emissions; they also give people lower bills and warmer, healthier homes. Will the Minster assure me that we have learnt the lessons of the downgrading of building standards nearly a decade ago? Retrofitting is far more expensive and disruptive, so can we see in the new standards really high-quality energy-efficiency methods, in particular solar, for new buildings, both domestic and business?

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

I thank the noble Baroness for the great contribution she has made in this area. We do need to learn lessons from what has happened in the past. The consultation sought views on revisions to the NPPF to increase support for renewable energy schemes, tackle climate change and safeguard environmental resources. Of course, ensuring that transition to clean power will help boost our energy independence, which is vital, reduce energy bills, support the high-skilled jobs and SME innovation we all want to see, and tackle the climate crisis. So, yes, we do take this very seriously. Those things will not be watered down. We are currently working on solar for the Future Homes Standard and we will be making more announcements shortly.