My Lords, this amendment seeks to limit the small sites exemption to two years from 2016 and to abolish it thereafter and to require the threshold in the interim to be sites with fewer than 10 properties. The Government have sprung their small sites exemption on us with little or no consultation, although they are now consulting on the matter. In the mean time, it remains unclear what is meant by small sites or by the exemption. We were hoping to have some clarity on these issues in time for today, but, alas, no. I thank the Minister for his letter of 3 November, where he said that the Government had endeavoured to publish the consultation document and the government responses on the zero-carbon consultation for the House of Lords Report stage, but were, however, still working on the document. It would be helpful if the Minister could say more about when we will be able to see that.
As we debated in Committee, the rationale for any exemption from the zero-carbon homes standards is a bit thin. The Government have already lowered these standards. If there is any justification for a time-limited exemption for some sites, it is that, having announced it, it might be argued that some time is needed to move back to the single standard. However, the longer the uncertainty about the detail of the exemption continues, the less valid that point is. The Government have argued that the exemption will be of help to small builders who have more difficulty in responding to new regulations. While I am sure that we all wish to encourage small builders, this is not the best way to do that.
We have recently had the benefit of the report from Michael Lyons, covering a whole raft of interesting stuff on housing. Within the package of support for SMEs that he recommends, for example, are these points:
“Legislative change to permit ‘redline’ outline planning applications on smaller sites of fewer than 10 homes. Local authorities should identify small sites in public ownership in local plans, and work with … public landowners to make them available for purchase and development by SMEs. Local authorities and their New Homes Corporations, working with lead developers should offer more packaged … opportunities for serviced sites to help SMEs access the market, including in Housing Growth Areas”.
Therefore, there are other ways in which to help small builders. In any event, it was pointed out in contributions to our debate that it is assumed that only small builders build on smaller sites and that larger builders would not seek to parcel sites to take advantage of the small sites exemption. It is also the case that a significant number of homes are provided on smaller sites.
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Having two-tier arrangements is anyway a potential recipe for confusion, while having what are perceived as relaxations for housebuilders means lower standards for those who buy and occupy those homes and at macro level, of course, it does nothing to address our climate change obligations. We urge the Government now to complete their consultation process as expeditiously as possible and seriously consider drawing back from this approach.
We are shortly to hear from the right reverend prelate the Bishop of St Albans, who is to be congratulated on taking forward his amendment and on keeping faith with the zero-carbon policy for new homes in 2016. The zero-carbon compliance test set out in the amendment is for carbon savings to be delivered on-site and it is recommended by the Zero Carbon Hub. This standard was the culmination of three years of rigorous scientific analysis and work to build consensus about a workable zero-carbon homes standard. As we know, there are three elements to these carbon savings: energy efficiency in the fabric of the building; low-carbon heat and power technologies; and off-site schemes or allowable solutions, as we now recognise them.
Things looked encouraging, at least in 2010, when the coalition Government confirmed that all homes would be zero-carbon by 2016 and set out the path to achieving this through staged improvements to the building regulations. However, things then started to slide. The 2013 building regulations fell short of the improvement required to stay on track for 2016 and although a consultation on allowable solutions was published no government response has yet been forthcoming, despite that consultation closing more than a year ago. As we have just discussed, the Government also announced small sites exemptions, the details and extent of which are as yet unknown.
The right reverend Prelate’s approach would help get us back on track to what appeared to be the starting consensus. A requirement that the compliance standards be met on-site before off-site allowable solutions are deployed is something that we support but we oppose, as our Amendment 101A makes clear, any
ongoing exemption for small sites. Making real progress on zero-carbon homes is vital if we are to meet our commitment to tackling climate change and our emissions targets. We support a higher standard for homes than that set out by the coalition—the one recommended by the Zero Carbon Hub. We would structure allowable solutions in such a way that developers are incentivised to prioritise on-site measures over external offsets. If we have any reservations they are about whether, given a chance to govern in 2015, these matters can quickly be put back on to the original 2016 trajectory. The right reverend Prelate is right to remind us of where we should be heading. I beg to move.