Shadow chancellor to address Tory conference as he claims slashing red tape could cut cost of new houses by £50,000 – UK politics live

Andrew Griffith makes speech today as Reform UK accuses party of copying policies they ‘announced weeks and months ago’ Tories to pledge to scrap Environment Agency and Natural England The Labour party has issued a detailed response to the proposals announced by Andrew Griffith,

Andrew Griffith makes speech today as Reform UK accuses party of copying policies they ‘announced weeks and months ago’ Tories to pledge to scrap Environment Agency and Natural England The Labour party has issued a detailed response to the proposals announced by Andrew Griffith, the shadow chancellor, today. (See 8.08am .) In part, Labour is saying the problems Griffith raises are being addressed. But mostly it is saying the Tories have no credibility on these issues because they ignored them or allowed them to get worse, when they were in power.

Here are some of the Labour arguments. The Conservatives have already pledged to scrap stamp duty on the family home, giving people a leg up onto the housing ladder. Now we are announcing radical supply-side reforms that will ensure the homes we need actually get built.

We will scrap unnecessary net-zero housing red tape that is stopping developers from building and driving up the cost of housing. We will ditch the Future Homes Standard and Part L of the Housing Regulations. All in all, we will cut the cost of delivering and therefore buying a new home by up to £50,000.

Ideological net zero rules alone have added more than £30,000 to the cost of building a new home. Local Government viability assessments show that Net Zero rules add tens of thousands of pounds to the cost of building a new home. For instance, Birmingham City Council assessed that improved efficiency, heat pumps and solar panels increase the cost of a new detached home by as much as £30,789.

The London Borough of Lewisham estimated that these rules would increase build costs by 15 per cent. (Birmingham City Council, Net Zero Plan Supporting Evidence Report , 7 September 2023, link , Lewisham Council, Viability Study 2022 , 17 May 2022, link .) These costs can be even higher as local and regional authorities often gold-plate these rules, imposing extra cost on developers. For instance, Policy SI2 (C) in the London Plan 2021 requires a 35 per cent uplift on energy efficiency beyond the national Building Regulations for major developments.

(Mayor of London, The London Plan , March 2021, link .) Continue reading...