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

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, whether, in delivery of the Zero Carbon Homes policy, house builders can contract with a third party to deliver the carbon abatement measures outside of the built environment in (a) renewable energy technologies, (b) carbon capture and storage and (c) nuclear power in order to meet the house builder's zero carbon obligation.

The Government intends to adopt a flexible approach to defining the off site carbon abatement measures (allowable solutions) which can be supported by house builders to meet their zero carbon obligation and not apply restrictions which would rule out innovative, cost effective approaches. The Government’s consultation on “Next Steps to Zero Carbon – Allowable Solutions” set out examples of potential measures which could be supported, including renewable energy measures. The Government has not considered support for carbon capture and storage or nuclear power in the context of allowable solutions. However, the criteria based approach set out in the consultation for identifying appropriate carbon abatement measures would require that measures will need to bring forward additional, verifiable carbon savings at a cost effective price. Given carbon capture and storage, and nuclear power, would have high upfront costs, they would be unlikely to be cost-effective.