Electoral Resilience

Calum Miller Excerpts

Tuesday 16th December 2025 Commons Chamber

[Calum Miller (Bicester and Woodstock) (LD)]

Members across the House expressed their deep concerns on this issue in the Backbench Business Committee debate on foreign interference that was led by my colleague, my hon. Friend the Member for Lewes (James MacCleary), last Thursday, so I am glad that the Government have taken this step today. There is clear evidence that other leaders of UKIP and Reform UK also associated with Nathan Gill’s Russian handlers. There is also evidence, laid out—albeit in redacted form—in the Russia report from the Intelligence and Security Committee of Russian money seeking to influence other parties and elections. Will the Secretary of State confirm that the review will be free to look back as far as it needs to inform its recommendations, including to the referendums of 2014 and 2016, and that it will be free to publish its findings without ministerial censorship?

[Steve Reed]

The review will certainly have the freedom to be fully independent, because that is important if we are to have confidence in its findings, but it will be forward looking; there will be no relitigating of previous elections. Although we know, not least from the Nathan Gill case, that there have been attempts by malign foreign actors to interfere in British democracy, there have been no findings that the outcomes of any elections to date were affected by malign foreign interference. The point of the review is to ensure that we maintain safeguards that are robust enough to protect future elections from malign foreign interference.

Planning Reform

Calum Miller Excerpts

Tuesday 16th December 2025 Commons Chamber

[Matthew Pennycook]

We want to see more community input, particularly upstream in the development of local plans. The Government are committed to driving local plans to adoption; we want to see universal coverage of local plans. The clear rules-based policies in this draft framework will help with the new plan-making system that we announced just weeks ago to ensure that we can drive up coverage in this Parliament.

[Calum Miller (Bicester and Woodstock) (LD)]

I welcome the ambition to build much-needed homes, especially social and affordable housing. However, in places such as Cherwell district in my constituency, the problem is not planning permissions. Under Liberal Democrat control, the council has already consented more than 10,000 homes; though consented, those homes have not yet been built, because the real blockage is delivery. Homes are not built because of a failure of grid capacity, supply chain costs and land banking by developers. These problems, which are outside the council’s control, now undermine its five-year housing land supply. The build-out consultation, which the Minister referred to, closed in the summer. Will he now commit to holding developers to account, once permission is granted, with real “use it or lose it” powers and to developing core infrastructure first, so that approved homes actually get built?

[Matthew Pennycook]

I was very clear that there is more that needs to be done to transform the failing housing system we inherited from the Conservatives. We need greater focus on reform and delivery; that will come next year. The regulatory and planning changes that will be made today—the culmination of 17 months of work to transform our planning system—are absolutely vital. We will come forward in due course with a response to proposals around build-out measures.

Oxford to Cambridge Growth Corridor

Calum Miller Excerpts

Wednesday 3rd December 2025 Westminster Hall

[Calum Miller (Bicester and Woodstock) (LD)]

It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Sir Jeremy, and I thank the hon. Member for Cambridge (Daniel Zeichner) both for securing this debate and for laying out so well so many of the issues that relate to the Oxford-Cambridge growth corridor.

I am proud to represent a dynamic centre of innovation, growth and job creation in Bicester, Kidlington and Woodstock, which is rightly at the heart of the Government’s growth ambitions and at the heart of the Oxford-Cambridge corridor. The hon. Member for Cambridge referred to the Government’s prospectus on the corridor, and I will take this early opportunity to say gently to the Minister that this area would love to be recognised as a hub in the next prospectus, given that we host leading firms, such as Oxford Ionics, YASA, Airbus, Sauber and NewPower among many others, and contribute significantly to the new creation of growth and opportunity in the region.

My part of Oxfordshire is central to this Government’s plan to drive national productivity and housing delivery. However, such growth is being undermined by fragmented decision making, lack of a cohesive plan and chronic underfunding of infrastructure. Communities such as those in my constituency are willing to support growth. Parents want houses for their children and people want good job opportunities, but they also want to see the Government play their part in delivering infrastructure first, not as an afterthought.

Too often we see major projects approved in silos, each one through a separate Department, and planning routes that do not take into account the cumulative impact of different projects on an area. This lack of cross-Government co-ordination leads to delays in projects, higher costs and—most importantly—a loss of public trust in the whole process.

I will divide such projects into two different categories. First, we have some projects in my area where there has been a lack of co-ordination on specific initiatives. For example, there is the London Road in Bicester, where East West Rail will result in the closure of a level crossing. There has been a five-year campaign by the local community to ensure that the impact of that closure locally is fully recognised and that the Government step up to play their part in maintaining connectivity.

In Woodstock, another part of my constituency, the surgery provides for only 38% of the growing population, based on the numbers set out in NHS guidance. It has been extremely hard to work with the valuation office to have it realistically assess rental values in the area, which is necessary to build the financial model that would allow for a new surgery to be developed.

In north-west Bicester, the Government want to support local plans for up to 9,000 new homes. However, those homes cannot be built because of a lack of grid capacity and supply to the area, which is halting the development of homes that have been consented, leading to real difficulties for Cherwell district council when it comes to its local housing land supply. Recently at the Botley West solar farm in the west of my constituency we have seen a very extensive process by the National Infrastructure Commission and the Planning Inspectorate, with relatively poor engagement by the developer. It has not engaged with local people in the way that would be expected in order to build the consent for such a project.

The second category relates to areas where we have multiple national projects with relatively poor co-ordination. At the end of September, I attended a meeting convened by local councillor Gareth Epps with over 30 local parish councils that are concerned about the proposals for four separate major national projects within a three-mile area. None appears in the local plan, all were to have significant impacts and each is sponsored by a different national Government Department: the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government in the case of a new town, the Department for Transport for a strategic rail freight interchange, and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport for a major new tourist attraction, with the local district council sponsoring new warehousing.

Local people are saying, “We are open for growth, and want to see the creation of housing and job opportunities, but we need the Government to step forward and help with the co-ordination, so that this is done in a structured way.” I gently invite the Minister to respond with regard to how best the Government think this can be developed. Will the Government look at the concepts of spatial delivery boards, or similar, that can be stood up in areas where there is a significant set of proposals beyond local plans? Will the Minister say more about the Government’s plans in this area?

Renters’ Rights Bill

Calum Miller Excerpts

Wednesday 22nd October 2025 Commons Chamber

[Matthew Pennycook]

The Northern Ireland Assembly can access this legislation online, but I will certainly continue to have conversations with Ministers in all the devolved Administrations about what lessons can be learned from what we have done with this Bill, and about what they can take from it.

I once again commend Lord Young of Cookham for championing the interests of shared owners affected by the building safety crisis, and I thank him for tabling his three amendments in lieu. As I made clear when we considered Lords amendments last month, the Government recognise the plight of shared owners living in buildings that require remediation. Many are facing unaffordable costs, often with no viable exit route other than a distress sale. We also appreciate that it is often harder to secure a purchaser for a shared ownership property, and that the sales of shared ownership flats are more likely to fall through due to the additional constraints involved. As such, we have always accepted that the 12 month no re-let period would have placed many shared owners in an extremely challenging position.

The reason why the Government did not feel able to accept Lord Young’s original Lords amendment 19 was that it could undermine protections for the small subset of tenants who happened to rent a sub-let home from a shared owner. I am therefore pleased to report to the House that the amendments in lieu deliver the core aims of that original amendment, while also ensuring that three key safeguards are in place to protect tenants.

First, there is a requirement for the shared owner to have informed the assured subtenant in writing at the outset of the tenancy about the exemption and its possible use. This will ensure tenants are aware of the particular circumstances of the tenancy they are entering into and can make an informed choice about whether they wish to enter into a tenancy agreement with the shared owner in question.

Secondly, shared owners must have informed their provider of their intention to sell before obtaining possession of the property from the tenant. This is an essential first step that all shared owners must take to begin the process of selling their property. I am satisfied that it is a proportionate requirement to evidence that a shared owner is genuinely intending to sell their home.

Thirdly, a valuation must be undertaken on the property by a member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, or the shared owner must have advertised the property for sale. This can be done at any point before a property is re-let, recognising the need for flexibility in how shared owners will approach a sale.

Taken together with the protections that are already in place as a result of registered providers having to authorise sub-letting requests and having oversight of what rent levels can be charged, I am satisfied that these safeguards will reduce, if not eliminate entirely, the risk that an exemption from the 12-month no re-let period might otherwise have posed.

Lords amendments 39B and 39C will introduce a statutory requirement for annual reporting on the extent to which service family accommodation meets the decent homes standard.

[Calum Miller (Bicester and Woodstock) (LD)]

I thank the Minister for listening to Liberal Democrat colleagues who have made these points, as I have along with my hon. Friend the Member for Taunton and Wellington (Gideon Amos), on previous occasions. It is very good that those living in military service accommodation will now have the opportunity to access the decent homes standard. Could the Minister assure me that he will work with colleagues in the Ministry of Defence to ensure that all service families are aware of the decent homes standard—the standard to which they can hold their accommodation providers—so they can live in better homes in my constituency of Bicester and Woodstock and across the country?

[Matthew Pennycook]

We have ongoing dialogue with colleagues in the Ministry of Defence about this issue, and if the hon. Member will allow me, I will elaborate on how we think these amendments will work in practice and how they interact with what the Ministry of Defence is itself doing. First, however, I once again thank Baroness Grender, Baroness Thornhill and the hon. Members for Taunton and Wellington (Gideon Amos) and for North Shropshire (Helen Morgan) for their continued support and advocacy for service personnel and their families.

The Government have been clear throughout the passage of the Bill that our armed services personnel and their families must live in safe and decent homes. We remain determined to improve the standard of service family accommodation across the entire defence estate. Alongside the commitment to drive up standards through a record investment of £1.5 billion in service family accommodation over the next five years, the Government will soon publish a defence housing strategy setting out clear renewal standards and further steps to improve the lives of those who serve our country. That standard will be published, so service families will be able to see, judge their accommodation against and interact with this new statutory duty.

As I outlined in the previous debate on Lords amendments, the Government acknowledge the need for greater transparency and accountability to ensure that the commitments we have made are honoured. The amendments in lieu will place the commitments I made to this House last month on a statutory basis. The Government believe that this, alongside the wider steps I have already set out, will help ensure service personnel and their families have the quality of homes that they deserve. The amendments also include a delegated power allowing the housing quality standards that SFA is assessed against to be updated when the current version of the decent homes standard is no longer considered appropriate—for example, when it has been replaced by a new modernised standard. The Liberal Democrats have indicated their support for these amendments, and I hope hon. Members will join me in supporting them.

To conclude, I urge the House to support the amendments put forward by the other place, and I look forward to the remainder of the debate.

Oral Answers to Questions

Calum Miller Excerpts

Monday 14th July 2025 Commons Chamber

[Rushanara Ali]

The Department for Work and Pensions keeps the level of housing benefit subsidy for temporary accommodation under review, and any future decisions will be informed by the Government’s wider housing ambitions, including tackling homelessness, and the broader fiscal context. Our fair funding review 2.0 consultation sets out our proposals to target money where it is most needed and will account for temporary accommodation costs.

[Calum Miller (Bicester and Woodstock) (LD)]

Homelessness is a huge issue in my constituency, where housing costs are among the highest in the country and people cannot find social and affordable housing. The business rates reset proposed under the fair funding review would potentially lead to a 42% decrease in the net resources available to the council. Can the Minister assure those living in the Cherwell district council area that the fair funding review will include protected support for tackling homelessness?

[Rushanara Ali]

The hon. Gentleman will be aware that we inherited a homelessness crisis, with record levels of people in temporary accommodation. Rough sleeping has gone up by 164% since 2010. The previous Labour Government cut homelessness and rough sleeping dramatically. We are investing to tackle the root causes of homelessness, and I look forward to working with the hon. Gentleman on those issues.

Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government

Calum Miller Excerpts

Tuesday 24th June 2025 Commons Chamber

[Calum Miller (Bicester and Woodstock) (LD)]

I welcome the opportunity to contribute on the important matter of how we spend money on local government, given the huge range of services it provides to each of our constituencies. The residents of Bicester and Woodstock share the pressures that many areas face when it comes to housing and homelessness. Like so many Members of this House, my surgeries are dominated by those who are unable to access the social housing that they wish—those who are living in inappropriate accommodation, often trying to look after their children in environments in which no child can advance their education. As such, I very much welcome the Government’s words about their ambition in this area.

However, I regret the fact that during the debate on the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, the Government resisted the request from our party that they make a firm commitment to make 150,000 social homes available each year. I very much hope that the Minister will look for a way to implement that goal in practice, even though he resisted the legislative request. I also welcome the fact that the Government have committed to the abolition of the Vagrancy Act 1824. That campaign, which my hon. Friend the Member for Oxford West and Abingdon (Layla Moran) has run for many years, is coming to fruition. It is so important that we do not criminalise those who are unable to access housing.

I will now turn to the broader issue of financial predictability that our local authorities face. The Minister will know the importance of financial management—indeed, I am sure he is caught up in it almost every day of his working life—but for local authorities to plan, the Government must give them time. As such, could the Minister give us two undertakings: first, that the local government finance settlement will be multi-year, in line with the spending review, and will be set for three years; and secondly, that the draft local government financial settlement on which councils start to plan will be announced much earlier than 18 December as it was last year? That announcement was one of the latest in any year.

In common with many Members, the other theme of my surgeries is the plight of many families who are coping with a child with special educational needs and disabilities who cannot access the services they need. Whether it is a lack of places in special schools or an inability to get the assessments they need to estimate their educational potential, too many young people are being let down. As such, given the huge deficits that have been accumulated in high needs blocks—in Oxfordshire, for example, the figure is £137 million—does the Minister recognise that councils simply cannot wait for an education or schools White Paper in the autumn to begin to understand how they will manage those figures in the future? Can he give some guidance to councils about the Government’s intentions for the next financial year, so that they can start to plan for what could otherwise be deeply destabilising cuts?

Finally, one highlight of local government is how it touches many aspects of our constituents’ lives and provides many diverse services. I call on the Minister to look at the public health grant and its role in providing for preventive healthcare, working closely with the other branches of the health system. We have figures out to 2026, I believe, but predictability about the future of that budget is a matter of huge importance.

Planning and Infrastructure Bill

Calum Miller Excerpts

Report stage
Monday 9th June 2025 Commons Chamber

[Chris Curtis]

I will make some progress.

Now we have a Bill that will finally move us towards environmental delivery plans that take a far more strategic approach to improving nature and increasing the building that this country so desperately needs. I want these changes to go further. We need to look at the culture within our regulators, especially Natural England, which has become too much of a blocker to building, but this Bill is a step forward, and the amendments proposed would be a step backwards.

I end with this plea, especially to hon. Members on my own Benches who seem to find themselves defending this broken status quo: “Before you vote tonight, talk to the people who will still be here after you’ve gone home. Speak to the person cleaning your office this evening, and ask them what it is like when rent swallows up over half your salary because we have failed to build our way out of this housing crisis. Speak to the person who cooked your lunch in the Tea Room, and ask what it is like to raise kids in a country with sky-high energy bills because we failed to build home-grown energy generation. Ask yourself who you are here to serve: the broken spreadsheets or the people who sent us here?” If we keep putting more and more barriers into our planning system, it is hard-working families across this country who will pay the price. Let us fix our planning system and get Britain building again.

[Calum Miller (Bicester and Woodstock) (LD)]

I thank the Minister and the members of the Bill Committee for their hard work on this legislation. I regret, however, that the Minister has been so resistant to amendments from my hon. Friend the Member for Taunton and Wellington (Gideon Amos) and from others on the Liberal Democrat Benches, which I now rise to support. My constituents in Bicester and Woodstock want to see a planning system that delivers decent, affordable homes for those excluded from housing, that recognises that investment in infrastructure must come before housing development and that does not create a false distinction between development and protecting nature.

Linda and Gary live in my constituency. Gary has complex needs and Linda is his carer. Their property is not suitable; Gary cannot shower or get to the garden by himself. Linda and Gary have been bidding to West Oxfordshire district council for a property suitable to meet Gary’s needs for more than a year, but they have been continually unsuccessful. As many hon. Members have stated, we have a crisis of social housing in this country. That is why Liberal Democrats want to see an additional 150,000 social homes built every year through amendment 15, and why new clause 112 is so important, preventing developers from ducking the delivery of social homes.

We also need developers to develop the buildings that have been consented. In Cherwell district council in my constituency, more than 8,000 homes have been consented but not built. That has led to a crisis, with villages such as Ambrosden and Launton at the mercy of opportunist developers who have hoovered up sites not contained in the local plan. New clause 3 would put an end to the land banking of consented sites, forcing developers to use them or lose them.

Residential Estate Management Companies

Calum Miller Excerpts

Tuesday 22nd April 2025 Westminster Hall

[Caroline Voaden]

Yes, I absolutely agree. I will come on to that a little later.

To get back to the core issue of estate management companies, every type of resident—leaseholders and freeholders—is affected by rogue practices. Perversely, the situation is often more difficult for freeholders, who do not have the same statutory rights as leaseholders to take challenges to a first-tier tribunal. Where the landlord of an estate is a housing association, no one has any right to go to tribunal if that landlord fails to manage the property properly. That, too, needs to be looked at, but it falls outside the scope of today’s debate.

Whichever way we look at it, residents—whether housing association tenants, private tenants, owner-occupiers or retirees, living in a house or a flat—are being ignored, dismissed, intimidated and, frankly, fleeced by management companies that are not subject to any kind of regulation. We have all seen what happened in the water industry when private operators were allowed to focus solely on the profit line, ignoring their responsibilities to the environment while keeping shareholders happy. I believe we are looking at the next great scandal of our time: companies that may be owned by a shadowy collection of overseas investors eating up the smaller players in the UK market, building up their wealth and size so that they can ride roughshod over anyone who is tenacious enough to question their methods or ask for legitimate explanations of where their money has gone.

[Calum Miller (Bicester and Woodstock) (LD)]

Across my constituency, from the largest developments with more than 1,000 homes to the smallest with just a dozen homes, residents are benighted by the lack of transparency of those who run the management companies. Does my hon. Friend agree that a great step forward would be for the Government to insist on the timely publication of itemised accounts, so it is much clearer to residents how their money is allegedly being spent on their behalf by the management companies?

[Caroline Voaden]

I absolutely agree and will come on to that as well.

As a new MP coming into this place, I realised that some issues would be pertinent only to my constituency and others would reflect similar casework elsewhere, but when I reached out to colleagues to see who else was dealing with casework about estate management and particularly FirstPort, I was shocked at the response I got. At least half my hon. Friends on the Liberal Democrat Benches are supporting residents whose properties and estates are managed by FirstPort, and a dozen of us were in the room to question managing director Martin King when he responded to our invitation and came to Parliament to answer some of our more urgent questions. Following our invitation, he was also invited by Labour and Conservative MPs. He must feel very popular with so many invitations to Parliament, but it is rather a reflection of the desperation of so many of our constituents, who have exhausted all other avenues to raise complaints with FirstPort.

Martin King’s company manages more than 310,000 homes across England, Wales and Scotland, so we are talking about at least half a million people dealing with just this one company. It is extremely disappointing to report that since the Lib Dem meeting, at which great things were promised, the only response we have received from the south-west regional operations director for the company has been one automatic email reply. It is not good enough.

Planning and Infrastructure Bill

Calum Miller Excerpts

2nd reading
Monday 24th March 2025 Commons Chamber

[Angela Rayner]

I gently say to the right hon. Gentleman that there is not a loss of the right to object. In fact, we are strengthening and clarifying those processes as part of the Bill. I will say it again: there will be a quicker and more certain system for big ticket infrastructure projects. The Bill will slice through bureaucracy and speed up transport projects. What it will not do is allow meritless cases to have three attempts at a legal challenge. It will stop cases from being dragged endlessly and needlessly through the courts. It will begin to strip away the unnecessary consultation requirements that do nothing to improve applications and do not meaningfully engage communities, but slow down the delivery of infrastructure that will benefit communities in the future. It will create greater flexibility so that projects can go through a more appropriate and faster planning route.

[Calum Miller (Bicester and Woodstock) (LD)]

The Secretary of State will understand that when a number of nationally strategic infrastructure projects are in one area, that has a huge impact. In my constituency we are looking at a strategic rail interchange, a major solar plant and the East West Rail project. Will she reassure my constituents that their voices will be heard under the Bill? Will she reassure us that when these issues go to the Planning Inspectorate and to the Secretary of State, the cumulative effect of national projects that are not present in local plans will be considered before decisions are taken?

[Angela Rayner]

As the hon. Gentleman knows, we will consult on the draft we have put forward. We want better and quality engagement as part of the Bill. Our changes will ensure that everyone works together early on, and that we have proportionate and faster decisions. We will make sure that the Government’s infrastructure policies are updated at least every five years, but the measures in the Bill are not the limit of our ambitions.

New Homes (Solar Generation) Bill

Calum Miller Excerpts

2nd reading
Friday 17th January 2025 Commons Chamber

[Calum Miller (Bicester and Woodstock) (LD)]

Residents in my constituency are aghast that a mega 840 MW solar farm is being proposed by the Blenheim estate, which, people believe, has not allowed solar panels to be placed on the houses it has developed in the area. Does the hon. Member agree that placing solar panels on the roofs of houses is a much better way to diversify solar panels and build the community consent for the renewable transition that is part of the Government’s mission?

[Tom Collins]

I fully agree. Many people have told me that, intuitively, they would like solar to be put on roofs first. I think there is strong consensus that that should be our direction.

My hon. Friend the Member for Sittingbourne and Sheppey (Kevin McKenna) talked about some of the challenges of retrofitting. We need to listen to the social science, harness new initiatives such as GB Energy and activate local authorities to empower ordinary people to retrofit solar. We must develop ways for people to easily access trusted partners to help them decarbonise their homes and save money as a result.

--- Later in debate ---

[Linsey Farnsworth (Amber Valley) (Lab)]

I pay tribute to the hon. Member for Cheltenham (Max Wilkinson) for bringing forward this Bill on a subject of great importance. I know from personal experience the time and effort it must have taken to get to this stage.

I am sure Members on both sides of the House will agree that solar is a key tool in the renewable energy arsenal which, if used properly, can have a significant positive impact on tackling climate change and ensuring that we live in a more sustainable society. I am proud to represent a constituency that is taking the power of solar seriously. Constituents in Amber Valley regularly write to me wanting to know what is being done at both local and national level to tackle climate change. Even those constituents who are not what any of us would call eco-warriors are invariably unopposed to solar on rooftops, and that is not, it seems, unique to Amber Valley. As I walked through Westminster underground station this morning, a billboard caught my eye. The MSC Foundation was advertising the fact that a recent YouGov survey found that three in four voters believe that solar panels should be mandatory on new homes.

When Labour took control of Amber Valley borough council in 2023, the council had no council homes whatsoever, as the previous Conservative-run council had sold all the housing stock 20 years earlier at below-market rates. To right that wrong, the council has started a new council house building programme, and while we started small, we are working towards a target of 30 new council homes, each fitted with solar panels. Indeed, the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero last year witnessed four new builds resulting from that programme on his visit to the borough alongside the Mayor of the East Midlands. It is fair to say that we are committed in Amber Valley. Incorporating rooftop solar as part of our house building programme has been an important part of delivering cleaner energy and lower bills, and ensuring sustainability for our constituents.

When I first became a borough councillor in Amber Valley, I asked whether we could have a planning condition that solar panels must be installed on roofs, and I too was told that that was just not possible. That was totally perplexing to me, so I am sure that hon. Members can imagine that I am proud to be part of a Government who are spearheading the most ambitious house building programme in a generation, with a clear commitment to environmental sustainability.

[Calum Miller]

The hon. Lady speaks of the Government’s ambition, and there is one simple thing they could do. In December 2023, after lobbying from developers, the previous Conservative Government shamefully issued a written ministerial statement to prohibit a councillor in West Oxfordshire district council in my constituency from insisting on higher environmental standards for a net zero development. Does the hon. Lady agree that if the Government simply revoked that written ministerial statement, local councils across the country would have more freedom to set higher environmental standards? Will she encourage the Minister to respond to that point?

[Linsey Farnsworth]

I would encourage the Minister to respond, because I do not think that it is for me to do so. However, I do think we should be doing everything we can to move towards a better, more sustainable future.

Not only are we building 1.5 million new homes over this Parliament, but we are committed to an ambitious decarbonising agenda and harnessing renewable resources across the UK. The Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero of course understands the importance of solar as part of our wider clean power mission, and the contribution that the energy efficiency of homes can make to our net zero emissions target. There is no doubt in my mind that rooftop solar plays a crucial role in that.

I support the notion behind the Bill. The Government are already working on future standards, particularly on the technical detail of solar, to ensure that they are appropriate. That will ensure that new homes and buildings embrace energy efficiency and are fit for a net zero future, and I look forward to the Government introducing those standards this year. I thank the hon. Member for Cheltenham for raising this important issue in the House today.