Future Homes Standard

Lord Foster of Bath Excerpts

Wednesday 29th January 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

I understand the issue; in fact, I met the National Housing Federation just last week to discuss these issues. We want to drive forward the delivery of affordable housing, particularly social housing, and we recognise the costs that will make. We will be considering, once we have set the standard, what that cost might be and what further support we might offer.

[Lord Foster of Bath (LD)]

My Lords—

[Lord Deben (Con)]

My Lords—

[Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms and Chief Whip (Lord Kennedy of Southwark) (Lab Co-op)]

Let us hear from the Lib Dem Benches first—then we will hear from the noble Lord.

[Lord Foster of Bath (LD)]

My Lords, high energy efficiency in new homes is clearly vital, but so is improving the home energy efficiency of existing homes, particularly the 2.6 million substandard homes in the privately rented sector. While the promised consultation is welcome, what plans do the Government have to speed up the retrofit programme to meet the target for 2030? In particular, what plans do they have to improve the situation whereby we have very few people currently available to do the necessary work?

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

There were two clear points there. One is about the training, apprenticeships and skills that we need to deliver in order to meet the retrofitting programme. We are working with colleagues in the Department for Education on that. We know there is a big challenge across the construction sector, first, to deliver 1.5 million new homes but also, secondly, in the retrofitting area. We are determined to meet that challenge and offer the new jobs that I spoke about earlier.

The noble Lord spoke about the private rented sector. Next week we will be introducing the renters’ rights Bill. There are significant new powers in that Bill for tenants to challenge their landlords when they feel that the improvements their homes need are not being dealt with as quickly as they should be. We continue to monitor that situation, because it is important that people can have homes that are fit for purpose and are warm, decent and comfortable.