Labour must stand firm against special pleading from housebuilders, who are likely to argue against fitting out new homes to stringent green standards, experts have warned.
The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, laid out sweeping changes to the planning system on Monday in her first speech on reviving economic growth while pursuing the climate goal of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. As well as lifting the ban on onshore wind in England, she reinstated targets on housebuilding, with 1.5m new homes to be built this parliament in England.
But Labour will face stiff opposition from housebuilders, if their behaviour in the past decade is any guide, according to experts approached by the Guardian. Housing developers saved many billions of pounds under the Conservatives – to whom they were some of the party’s biggest donors – when rules that would have forced them to build to low-carbon standards were scrapped.
The builders said the rules were too onerous and would add to the cost of new homes. Delaying the rules meant they saved about £5,000 per home on average by not having to fit homes with high-grade insulation, heat pumps, solar panels and other green technology.
Their savings have come at a high cost to homeowners, however: the occupiers of the 1.5m new homes built since the rules were scrapped in 2015 will have to expensively retrofit their homes, at an average cost of £20,000 each.
Ed Matthew, the campaigns director at the E3G thinktank, warned the construction industry was likely to try the same special pleading with Labour: “Successive Tory governments caved into the powerful housebuilder lobby, who were major donors to the Conservatives. One of those housebuilders was paying more in bonuses to their executives each year than it would have cost them to make their homes reach the zero carbon standard,” he said.
He said Labour must act differently: “They will have to resist the siren calls of the housebuilding lobby who may try to use their muscle to put pressure on Labour ministers to water down the standard if they want to build homes fast – the same tactic they have used before.
“But this is just a ruse – they have had many years to prepare to implement [low-carbon] standards and zero carbon homes can now be built at volume. It will bring down emissions but it will also be crucial for bringing down energy bills. It is a win win.”