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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, when he plans to publish proposals on energy efficiency standards for work carried out in existing dwellings.

The Government has committed to introduce a Future Homes Standard by 2025. This means new homes will be future proofed, with low carbon heating and lower energy use through high levels of energy efficiency. We propose that new homes built to the Future Homes Standard from 2025 should have carbon dioxide emissions up to 80 per cent lower than those built to current building regulations standards.

We are currently consulting on a meaningful and achievable increase to the energy efficiency standards for new homes to be introduced through the Building Regulations in 2020, as a stepping stone to this commitment. The preferred option is to set a standard that should result in a 31 per cent reduction in CO2 emissions.

A further consultation will follow, in the coming months, proposing changes to the energy efficiency standards for non-domestic buildings and for building work to existing homes and non-domestic buildings; and on preventing overheating in new buildings.