The Conservative Party has unveiled plans to overhaul housing regulations, arguing that current environmental and net-zero requirements are significantly driving up construction costs. Proposals include scrapping the Future Homes Standard and parts of the Housing Regulations, with claims these changes could reduce the price of a new home by up to £50,000. Critics, including Reform UK, have accused the party of adopting policies first introduced by opposition groups, while local authorities cite examples where net-zero rules have already added tens of thousands to build costs. The government insists the reforms will boost housing supply by cutting unnecessary red tape.
Andrew Griffith makes speech today as Reform UK accuses party of copying policies they ‘announced weeks and months ago’Tories to pledge to scrap Environment Agency and Natural EnglandThis is what the Tories are saying in their overnight news release about their plans to cut regulation affecting building on why they believe their measures could cut the cost of a new house by £50,000.This is the short version.The Conservatives have already pledged to scrap stamp duty on the family home, giving people a leg up onto the housing ladder. Now we are announcing radical supply-side reforms that will ensure the homes we need actually get built.We will scrap unnecessary net-zero housing red tape that is stopping developers from building and driving up the cost of housing. We will ditch the Future Homes Standard and Part L of the Housing Regulations. All in all, we will cut the cost of delivering and therefore buying a new home by up to £50,000.Ideological net zero rules alone have added more than £30,000 to the cost of building a new home. Local Government viability assessments show that Net Zero rules add tens of thousands of pounds to the cost of building a new home. For instance, Birmingham City Council assessed that improved efficiency, heat pumps and solar panels increase the cost of a new detached home by as much as £30,789. The London Borough of Lewisham estimated that these rules would increase build costs by 15 per cent. (Birmingham City Council, Net Zero Plan Supporting Evidence Report, 7 September 2023, link, Lewisham Council, Viability Study 2022, 17 May 2022, link.)These costs can be even higher as local and regional authorities often gold-plate these rules, imposing extra cost on developers. For instance, Policy SI2 (C) in the London Plan 2021 requires a 35 per cent uplift on energy efficiency beyond the national Building Regulations for major developments. (Mayor of London, The London Plan, March 2021, link.)Therefore, as a first step, foreign minister Gideon Sa’ar has decided this evening to declare Green party leader Zack Polanski barred from entering Israel. Continue reading...
