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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to the Written Statement of 25 March 2015 on Planning Update, HCWS488, whether it is his Department's policy that local authorities will continue to be able to set and apply policies in their local plans which require compliance with energy performance standards that exceed the energy requirements of Building Regulations.

The Government has no current plans to commence Section 43 of the Deregulation Act 2015. Local authorities may include in their local plans policies which set reasonable requirements for new development to meet higher energy performance standards than those required in building regulations. Policies must not be inconsistent with relevant national policies. The Written Ministerial Statement of 25 March 2015 set out relevant national policy.