Planning and Infrastructure Bill

Debate between Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park and Baroness Taylor of Stevenage

Wednesday 29th October 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park (Con)]

I have a very brief question for the Minister. Am I not right in thinking that the building regulations have been used as a vehicle in relation to the Climate Change Act as well as in relation to the Environment Act, and therefore they go beyond the remit of simply safeguarding the well-being and health of individual occupants?

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

Those are complex, technical regulations around the construction of buildings which do not relate to the protection of species. As the noble Lord is aware, there are many species lobbying groups which might want to use building regulations for that purpose. The other thing is that building regulations cover a huge variety of different buildings—probably including the 58-foot tower that the noble Lord, Lord Krebs, referred to. If you imagine the number of species compared with the number of different sizes and shapes of buildings, we would end up with a very complex picture with building regulations if we were to go down this route.