Planning Reforms: Energy and Housing Costs

Baroness Hayman Excerpts

Thursday 15th May 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

We now have a land-use framework from Defra, and we will be producing a long-term housing strategy, which will include information about how we intend to work in rural areas. I hope the noble Baroness will contribute to the consultation on that. It is of course very important that we develop the infrastructure we need as a country and continue our move towards a clean-energy future. That will mean some use of land in rural and urban areas, but that can sometimes be exaggerated. The figure my noble friend the Energy Minister often cites is that, at the moment, our plans mean that 0.1% of land would be used for solar farms. So we have to be careful about over-exaggerating the issue, but the noble Baroness’s point is well made and we do need to protect good-quality agricultural land—that is our intention—as well as making sure we build what we need.

[Baroness Hayman (CB)]

My Lords, I recognise the Minister’s desire not to be technology-specific regarding the new homes building standards. But I wonder whether she agrees with me that by not laying down a requirement for solar energy when it is applicable to new building, you leave the decision in the hands of the developers, who may well choose not to do something that would contribute to energy security in this country and to lower heating bills for the owners or tenants of those properties?

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

We have made it clear that the drive in the National Planning Policy Framework, which we have just reviewed, is towards renewable energy. The noble Baroness points to just one of the reasons, which is the cheaper energy supply for householders and businesses, but we need to focus on energy security as well as making sure we are not damaging the planet through the energy we use. Importantly, the planning reforms will help to fast-track projects to create homegrown renewable electricity for homes and businesses. The national planning policies we have set out move towards that, but as I said, we have to be careful not to shut off new technologies and to make sure that we leave flexibility for new technologies as they develop.