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

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps his Department is taking to help support local authorities with encouraging the building of net zero social housing.

The Government has given councils a comprehensive range of tools to deliver a new generation of council housing. Alongside these ambitions, the Government remains committed to meeting its target of net zero emissions by 2050; we must ensure that the energy efficiency standards we set through the Building Regulations for new homes put us on track to meet the 2050 target.

From 2025, the Future Homes Standard will ensure that new homes produce at least 75% fewer CO₂ emissions compared to those built to the 2013 standards. These homes will be future proofed with low carbon heating and high levels of energy efficiency.

In December 2021, we introduced an uplift in energy efficiency standards that provides a stepping-stone to the Future Homes Standard. Once the uplift comes into force, in June 2022, new homes will be expected to produce around 30% fewer CO₂ emissions compared to the previous 2013 standards, marking an important step on our journey towards a cleaner, greener built environment and net zero by 2050.