Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will make it his policy to introduce planning regulations to require new build homes to (a) be zero carbon and (b) have built in domestic renewables which generate at least 50 per cent of that home's energy needs by December 2023.

I refer the Hon. Member to my answer to Question 121115 on 1 December. I will add that the Government remains committed to meeting its target of net zero emissions by 2050 and recognises the important contribution that the energy efficiency of buildings has to make in meeting it. National Planning Policy expects that local authorities should adopt proactive strategies to reduce carbon emissions, recognising the objectives and provisions of the Climate Change Act 2008. There are provisions in the Planning and Energy Act 2008 that allow development plan policies to impose reasonable requirements for renewable energy use. This means that a proportion of energy used in development in their areas can be energy from renewable sources and/or be low carbon energy from sources in the locality of the development.