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

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that new housing developments meet sustainability and energy efficiency standards set in the Environment Act 2021.

The Environment Act introduced a new mandatory Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) requirement of 10% for new housing developments last year. This means new housing developments will result in more high quality natural habitat than there was before the development. The government is working closely with the sector to make BNG work effectively.

The government is also taking steps to ensure new housing developments meet ambitious energy efficiency standards through the Building Regulations. The Future Homes Standard is due to be implemented later this year, which will ensure that new homes are highly energy efficient and that they are “zero carbon ready”, meaning that they will become zero carbon over time as the electricity grid decarbonises, without the need for any retrofit work.