Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what measures his Department has in place to (a) regulate the carbon footprint of new buildings; and in what way those regulations are monitored and (b) reported on for new builds.

The 2021 Net Zero Strategy set out Government's ambition to help the construction sector improve reporting on embodied carbon in buildings and confirmed we are exploring the potential of maximum embodied carbon levels in new buildings in the future.

We have taken action to reduce the in-use emissions of buildings by introducing an uplift to energy efficiency regulations in 2021 and will shortly consult on the Future Homes and Buildings Standards which will see new homes net zero ready from 2025 onwards, thus requiring no further retrofit work as the electricity grid decarbonises. The energy performance of new buildings can be assessed by viewing the associated Energy Performance Certificates which are publicly available and are produced when the building is completed.