New Homes
Debate between Lord Krebs and Baroness Taylor of Stevenage(1 week, 5 days ago)
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Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)
There is no intention for bulldozers to bowl in without any local say in this. By strengthening the housing targets and allowing development on that poor-quality grey-belt land, we will get Britain building again. We will set out tomorrow in the National Planning Policy Framework the definitions of “grey belt” and how we intend to move things forward. Making those housing targets mandatory will reverse the decline we saw when the targets were cancelled last year.
Lord Krebs (CB)
My Lords, can the Minister reassure us that these 1.5 million new homes will be resilient in the face of future climate change? I am thinking particularly of the risks of flooding and overheating.
Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)
I am working daily on that task at the moment. We are looking at the future homes standard with the future homes hub, which involves the whole construction industry, to make sure that we make homes as resilient to climate change as we possibly can. Of course, there is a balance to be struck in delivery of homes but we want to make sure that we do not end up with a whole generation of homes that need retrofitting in the future. We will do our best, working with the industry, to make sure that they are as fit for the future as we can possibly make them.