Housing: Permitted Development Rights

Lord Ravensdale Excerpts

Wednesday 18th December 2024 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

I take the noble Baroness’s point; we need to keep this continually under review. Some of the permitted development homes have been of fair quality and have provided homes for people. But we need to continue to press that all new homes delivered through permitted development rights must provide adequate light, meet nationally described space standards and be decent, fit and safe for the people who live in them. We will continue to do that. Where there are bigger schemes, equally, they must meet those requirements.

[Lord Ravensdale (CB)]

My Lords, I declare my interest as listed in the register. Running through the creation of additional housing are upcoming policy decisions on regulating embodied carbon. Can the Minister update the House on the research under way in her department, when it will report and when the associated consultation will be published?

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

I am grateful to the noble Lord, and for his time in meeting with me to discuss embodied carbon. We have been talking to the construction industry and to developers across the board, and there are some complex issues involved. I know the noble Lord is doing work with stakeholders as well, and I look forward to working with him further in the new year. I believe we have a meeting scheduled for early in 2025 to discuss this further.

Planning Reforms: Net-zero Carbon Emissions

Lord Ravensdale Excerpts

Tuesday 3rd December 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Ravensdale (CB)]

My Lords, I declare my interests as listed in the register. A Written Ministerial Statement from December last year is preventing a number of sustainable developments from being built across the UK, including Salt Cross in Oxfordshire, because it is constraining local authorities’ efforts to build houses that go beyond current building energy-efficiency regs. Can the Minister say what plans the Government have to revoke that Written Ministerial Statement and allow these developments to go ahead?

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

I thank the noble Lord, and I will take back the point on the Written Ministerial Statement, but plan makers’ powers have not been restricted. The Planning and Energy Act 2008 permits plan makers to set at the local level energy efficiency standards which go beyond national building regulation standards, provided that they do so in a manner consistent with national policy.