Climate Change: Housing Insurability, Mortgage Lending and Financial Resilience

Lord Hunt of Kings Heath Excerpts

Monday 13th July 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Livermore (Lab)]

I am grateful to the noble Baroness for her Question. I am very conscious that she is far more expert in these matters than I am. As she knows, the independent Climate Change Committee has made recommendations on the preparedness of the UK for current or future climate change risks. The Government will consider these recommendations as part of the next national adaptation programme.

The noble Baroness mentioned households and mortgages. The Bank of England’s assessment suggested that it would take a severe shock to borrowing costs, household incomes or the cost of essential goods to put aggregate debt servicing under pressure. The Government do not expect climate change to have an immediate impact on mortgages or household resilience, though they recognise the long-term pressures that climate change could have on a property’s value, insurability or suitability as security for mortgage lending. The Government will, of course, continue to work with industry to address any market failures.

[Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Lab)]

My Lords, on the issue of financial resilience and climate change, has my noble friend seen the CBI report that came out a few weeks ago, showing that the net-zero economy is now worth over £100 billion and is promoting growth in all parts of the UK? Having said that, what does he make of the leader of the Opposition’s now opposition to net zero and wish to repeal the Climate Change Act 2008 and deselect Tory candidates who support net zero? What impact would that have on our economy?

[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.