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

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps he is taking to help ensure that new builds, including residential developments, are energy efficient particularly in respect of renewable energy.

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.

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 have very high fabric standards and be extremely energy efficient. Similarly, the Future Buildings Standard will ensure that new non-domestic buildings are highly efficient and have the best fabric standards possible.

In December 2021 the Government introduced an uplift in energy efficiency standards that delivers a meaningful reduction in carbon emissions and provides a stepping-stone to the Future Homes and Buildings Standards. Once the uplift comes into force, in June 2022, new homes will be expected to produce around 30% fewer CO₂ emissions and new non-domestic buildings will be expected to produce 27% fewer CO₂ emissions.

Our approach remains technology-neutral and developers will therefore retain the flexibility they need to use the materials and technologies that suit the circumstances of a site and their business to achieve these targets. This includes the use of solar panels where appropriate. The development of the 2021 energy efficiency targets included consideration of solar panels and thus we expect that many new buildings, where appropriate, will use this technology to meet the new standard.