Climate Change: Housing Insurability, Mortgage Lending and Financial Resilience

Baroness Hayman Excerpts

Monday 13th July 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Livermore (Lab)]

It is a great shame what my noble friend says about the Opposition; with such a significant issue as climate change and the importance of net zero, we want a cross-party consensus to drive forward the measures necessary in this country. He is absolutely right to say that economic growth is our number one mission, but without economic growth we cannot meet our climate change targets, and by investing in climate change measures we can drive greater levels of economic growth. If we step back from that, it would be a great shame and would do serious damage to our economy given that, as my noble friend says, the net-zero economy is growing so strongly.

[Baroness Hayman (CB)]

My Lords, the Minister is obviously correct that we really do need to step back from this divisive and completely unsubstantiated move away from the consensus on the need to do something about the changes in the climate we are seeing around us day in, day out.

What the Minister said about systemic risk to financial services and long-term risk was reassuring, but I wonder whether I could ask him to have a word with his noble friend, the noble Lord, Lord Stockwood, about the Financial Services and Markets Bill currently going through this House. There are grave concerns that the provisions we put in three years ago to a Bill that the Minister will remember are being watered down when they need to be strengthened.

[Lord Livermore (Lab)]

I am grateful to the noble Baroness for her question. She is absolutely right in what she said about climate change. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change—the world’s foremost authority on climate change science—established in its sixth assessment report that climate change is real and is being driven by greenhouse gas emissions. It predicts that if the rate of warming is not limited to 1.5 degrees centigrade above pre-industrial levels, we risk severe and irreversible damage to our planet and our people. Of course, it will be good if we maintain a cross-party consensus on the measures necessary to tackle that.

I heard what the noble Baroness said about financial stability. She will know that the Bank of England’s December 2025 financial stability report set out the committee’s assessment of climate-related risk to UK financial stability: it is low relative to other countries in the shorter term.