Asked by: Alan Whitehead (Labour - Southampton, Test)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if his Department will publish the collated data for each Energy Assessor and Accreditation Scheme in each of the last 12 months, including on domestic energy assessor complaints and reporting.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
The Department has no plans to publish reporting data provided by Energy Assessor Accreditation Schemes.
The Energy Assessor Accreditation Schemes are required to have complaints systems in place to deal with complaints about individual energy assessments. The department occasionally receives complaints about how Accreditation Schemes have handled complaints made to them but does not hold a record of the numbers of these.
Asked by: Alan Whitehead (Labour - Southampton, Test)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if his Department will publish monthly reports from Accreditation Schemes for the production of energy certificates detailing EPC activity.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
The department publishes weekly and monthly statistics on the number of Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) lodged to the EPC Register. This information is available on Gov.uk: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-energy-performance-of-buildings-certificates
EPC data is also regularly published on Open Data Communities, with between two and four updates per year: https://epc.opendatacommunities.org/
Asked by: Alan Whitehead (Labour - Southampton, Test)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what discussions his Department has had with stakeholders on requiring domestic energy assessor accreditation schemes to submit data regarding complaints they receive relating to their accredited assessors to his Department.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
The domestic energy assessor accreditation schemes are required to have complaints systems in place to deal with complaints about individual energy assessments. The Department has no plans to require schemes to submit data to the Department relating to complaints about their members.
Asked by: Alan Whitehead (Labour - Southampton, Test)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how many complaints his Department has received relating to each of the five domestic energy assessor accreditation schemes in each of the last five financial years.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
The energy assessor accreditation schemes are required to have complaints systems in place to deal with complaints about individual energy assessments. The Department occasionally receives complaints about how schemes have handled complaints made to them but does not hold a record of the numbers of these.
Asked by: Alan Whitehead (Labour - Southampton, Test)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment he has made of the risks of energy assessors carrying out fraudulent assessments of domestic properties in order for those properties to comply with Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
The Department recognises that there is a risk of fraudulent assessments for energy performance certificates. Accreditation Schemes are required to have Fraud Identification Plans that include informing the appropriate authorities if fraud is suspected. The EPC Action Plan sets out the Government’s intention to consider wider issues about the oversight and accountability of the EPC system including to deal with fraud issues in a more comprehensive way.
Asked by: Alan Whitehead (Labour - Southampton, Test)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to the Government's response to the Future Homes Standard consultation, published in January 2021, whether his Department plans to fully implement the Future Homes Standard in 2025 as set out in that response.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
From 2025, the Future Homes Standard will ensure that new homes are future-proofed with low carbon heating and high levels of energy efficiency to produce at least 75 per cent lower CO2 emissions compared to those built to current standards, which represents a considerable improvement in energy efficiency standards of new homes.
As set out in the Government response to the Future Homes Standard consultation, our work on a full technical specification for the Future Homes Standard has been accelerated and we will consult on this in 2023. We also intend to introduce the necessary legislation in 2024, ahead of implementation in 2025.
It is also worthy of note that later this year we will introduce an interim uplift in Part L standards that provides a stepping stone to the Future Homes Standard and will require new homes to produce 31% less CO2 emissions compared to current standards.
This timeline delivers on our net zero commitments, while ensuring that new homes are delivered in sufficient numbers in the places that we need them; providing the good quality, warm homes that consumers expect; and continuing to keep energy bills low.
Asked by: Alan Whitehead (Labour - Southampton, Test)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to the Government's response to the Future Homes Standard consultation, published in January 2021, whether he plans to bring forward the legislative proposals necessary for the Future Homes Standard in 2024 as set out in that response.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
From 2025, the Future Homes Standard will ensure that new homes are future-proofed with low carbon heating and high levels of energy efficiency to produce at least 75 per cent lower CO2 emissions compared to those built to current standards, which represents a considerable improvement in energy efficiency standards of new homes.
As set out in the Government response to the Future Homes Standard consultation, our work on a full technical specification for the Future Homes Standard has been accelerated and we will consult on this in 2023. We also intend to introduce the necessary legislation in 2024, ahead of implementation in 2025.
It is also worthy of note that later this year we will introduce an interim uplift in Part L standards that provides a stepping stone to the Future Homes Standard and will require new homes to produce 31% less CO2 emissions compared to current standards.
This timeline delivers on our net zero commitments, while ensuring that new homes are delivered in sufficient numbers in the places that we need them; providing the good quality, warm homes that consumers expect; and continuing to keep energy bills low.
Asked by: Alan Whitehead (Labour - Southampton, Test)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to make (a) heat pumps, (b) solar panels and (c) other domestic renewable technologies compulsory for new housing in future planning regulations.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
Mandating a particular renewable technology may not be appropriate for all dwellings in all areas. National planning policy encourages the use of renewables without requiring any particular technology. In the case of the Building Regulations, the Government sets minimum energy performance standards for new homes and non-domestic buildings. These are expressed in performance terms and do not prescribe the technologies, materials or fuels to be used. This allows builders and homeowners the flexibility to innovate and select the most practical and cost-effective solutions appropriate in any development. Not all dwellings may be suitable for solar panels because of their orientation and other reasons such as structural strength of the roof.
In October 2019, we launched the first stage of a two-part consultation that proposed changes to Part L of the Building Regulations for new homes. We proposed an ambitious uplift in the energy efficiency of new homes through the introduction of a Future Homes Standard. We expect that homes built to the Future Homes Standard will have carbon dioxide emissions 75-80 per cent lower than those built to current Building Regulations standards This means they will be fit for the future, with low carbon heating and very high fabric standards.
We committed in Planning for the Future to review the roadmap to the Future Homes Standard to ensure that implementation takes place to the shortest possible timeline. We will be publishing the Government response to the Future Homes Standard interim uplift consultation as soon as possible. This will set out a roadmap to the Future Homes Standard.
Asked by: Alan Whitehead (Labour - Southampton, Test)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will make it his policy to introduce planning regulations to require new build homes to (a) be zero carbon and (b) have built in domestic renewables which generate at least 50 per cent of that home's energy needs by December 2023.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
I refer the Hon. Member to my answer to Question 121115 on 1 December. I will add that the Government remains committed to meeting its target of net zero emissions by 2050 and recognises the important contribution that the energy efficiency of buildings has to make in meeting it. National Planning Policy expects that local authorities should adopt proactive strategies to reduce carbon emissions, recognising the objectives and provisions of the Climate Change Act 2008. There are provisions in the Planning and Energy Act 2008 that allow development plan policies to impose reasonable requirements for renewable energy use. This means that a proportion of energy used in development in their areas can be energy from renewable sources and/or be low carbon energy from sources in the locality of the development.
Asked by: Alan Whitehead (Labour - Southampton, Test)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the effect of the Government's proposed changes in the use of timber in construction on trends in the level of carbon emissions.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
Timber is a way of ensuring the long-term storage of carbon where it can be used safely in buildings.
The consultation following the review of the ban on the use of combustible materials in and on the external walls of buildings closed on 25 May 2020 and we are now analysing the results of the consultation. As part of the next step of the development of the policy, we will produce a detailed impact assessment. No specific assessment of the effect of the proposed changes on trends in the level of carbon emissions has been made.
However, we published an impact assessment when the original ban was first introduced. This document is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ban-on-combustible-materials-in-external-wall-systems-impact-assessment