My Lords, this has been a very important discussion—a very long discussion—with an awful lot for the Minister to consider, both in his summing up and afterwards. It has been important because it is about how our planning system affects our health. It has also brought some specific tangible changes which could be prioritised to make a difference, and which are currently ignored in the Bill and in the National Planning Policy Framework review. This is despite the fact that there are not just missions on decent homes but missions on narrowing the gap of healthy life expectancy and on improving well-being. If this is a levelling-up Bill, these threads need to go through it. The planning section is an important area whereby we can make changes to health and well-being. I think the link to planning is particularly relevant when you look at homes, home standards and the standards of our future homes. The amendments here address these gaps. If we are genuinely going to make a difference here, we have to put people right at the centre of our planning system.
First, I will look at the amendments in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Crisp. I have an amendment in this group to probe the supply of healthy homes, but the debate around the amendments in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Crisp, and that of the noble Lord, Lord Young of Cookham, have clearly covered what my amendment was looking to probe, in a far more effective way. As has already been said, we need to congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Crisp, on his tenacity and refusal to give up on the fact that people’s health and well-being need to be put right at the heart of how we regulate the built environment. We should also congratulate the Town and Country Planning Association and its campaign to do the same. This is a very important issue.
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We know that since the noble Lord, Lord Crisp, started his campaign a couple of years ago, the medical evidence surrounding the relationship between the condition of someone’s home and neighbourhood and their life chances has become even stronger. That evidence is there. We supported his earlier Private Member’s Bill on this, and I am very proud to support the amendments he has put forward today. We also know that evidence is growing of the often shockingly poor standards of some new homes that are coming
through the deregulated planning system—that is what it is. We know that the Government have acknowledged that housing and health are key to the levelling-up agenda, but we need clear provisions in the Bill to actually achieve that objective.
According to the Building Research Establishment, 2.6 million homes in England—that is 11%—in 2021 were poor-quality and hazardous to occupants. It estimates, as we have heard from others, that the NHS has a huge cost to carry because of the state of some of our homes. We need to recognise that there is an obvious regulatory failure right at the heart of our approach to the built environment. As my noble friend Lord Blunkett said, having healthy warm homes is a complete no-brainer.
The noble Lord, Lord Crisp, referred to the letter that the Minister, the noble Baroness, Lady Scott of Bybrook, wrote to Peers at the end of January. In it, she recognised that housing provision is vital to the mission of levelling up. I will not read from the letter as other noble Lords have done that. It is also important to reiterate that the letter said that the Government should support the objective within the Healthy Homes Bill. If this is genuinely what the Minister and the Government believe, surely they should be accepting these amendments instead of dismissing the specific approach that is taken in the Healthy Homes Bill by the noble Lord, Lord Crisp. The provisions are not already being dealt with by existing rules or alternative policies, as the Minister said in her letter. If they are, why are our homes in such a poor state?
The noble Lord, Lord Stevens of Birmingham, talked about the fact that we need mechanisms to bring change. These amendments would bring those mechanisms. He talked about how bad decisions last a generation and beyond. The noble Earl, Lord Lytton, talked about good and bad design from his experience. These are the things that the Government should listen to. While we have the existing policy contained in documents—such as the National Planning Policy Framework or national technical housing standards, which cover some of the elements addressed in the healthy homes principles—they are not mandatory legal standards. As such, they can be set aside by local decision-makers.
My noble friend Lord Hunt of Kings Heath articulately outlined how our built environment affects our health. He talked about the widening gap between richest and poorest and the impact of health inequalities. This refers back to that mission. The noble Baroness, Lady Bennett of Manor Castle, mentioned the high number of excess winter deaths. These are all things that can be tackled if we improve our planning regulations. The noble Lord, Lord Young of Cookham, suggested that perhaps a revised NPPF could include some revised commitments in this area. It would be a very straightforward thing for the Government to commit to do. The problem is that building regulations are focused on minimum standards of physical safety rather than the proactive promotion of people’s wider health and well-being. The right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Derby mentioned the terrible outcomes that can result from this particular focus.
Planning law, as we have heard, has no overall legal duty for the Secretary of State to promote health and well-being. It contains very weak provisions on the promotion of sustainable development, but none of them refers to human health and well-being. My noble friend Lady Jones of Whitchurch discussed how we can make walking and cycling more readily accessible, as well as the importance of access to nature and green spaces and reclaiming derelict land. The problem is that, because the framework is advisory and discretionary, we do not make any progress. That alone should justify the approach in the Healthy Homes Bill. The need for fundamental change is reinforced by the lack of priority given to health and well-being in national policy, and by the fact that where policy does exist, it is often expressed as a “nice to have”, rather than an essential requirement at the heart of what we should be doing. Will the Minister consider meeting with the noble Lord, Lord Crisp, to look at how these proposals can be taken forward? I think there is huge support in this House for what the noble Lord is trying to achieve.
As usual, the noble Lord, Lord Young of Cookham, very readily and clearly introduced his Amendment 241. I thank him, because it is extremely important to have an amendment on health inequalities in this debate; it picks up the mission I mentioned earlier and looks to plug that gap in the Bill. The right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Derby mentioned Professor Sir Michael Marmot. I understand—the noble Lord, Lord Young, may have told me this—that he supports the noble Lord’s Bill. He supported greater use of the planning system to address health inequalities in his landmark Fair Society, Healthy Lives review. The planning sector has taken his work to heart since then, to some extent, but it needs concerted government backing if it is to deliver on what he is proposing.
The noble Lord, Lord Foster, spoke to the amendment in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Young, and highlighted some specific tools that planners have to address health inequalities. He talked about improving access to nature, allowing for exercise and so on. The noble Lord, Lord Teverson, also talked about access to green and blue spaces and the importance of that on our health. Professor Marmot said that reducing health inequalities was a matter of fairness and social justice, and I absolutely support those comments. Again, will the Minister take a look at his findings and see if the Government could support them?
I was very pleased to add my name to Amendment 484 in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Ravensdale. We have heard that embodied carbon emissions in construction are not regulated, even though they can constitute the bulk of emissions from new buildings. As the noble Lord, Lord Best, said, the substantial portion of UK carbon emissions that buildings and construction hold are kind of hidden; they are not talked about enough. It is important that this is better recognised and that we look at how we can take action to tackle this.
The noble Lord, Lord Ravensdale, explained operational carbon emissions and embodied carbon emissions, the difference between them, and why one is recognised in particular and the other is not, even though the embodied carbon emissions in construction
now contribute to an increasing proportion of the whole-life carbon emissions for most buildings. As he said, the problem is that they are not regulated as operational carbon emissions are. That is why his amendment is important, because it recognises that things are moving and changing.
The noble Lord mentioned the Part Z campaign, and I congratulate it for the tremendous work it has done. There is work being done voluntarily in the construction industries on this. The Greater London Authority now requires a whole-life carbon assessment as part of planning for projects over a certain size. As we have heard, this is already happening in other countries. The noble Lord, Lord Lansley, talked about schemes that are already available—for example, the sustainable framework for buildings. So, there is precedent for things to happen in this area.
Finally, we absolutely support Amendment 504GF in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Hayman. She talked about the synergy between healthy homes and energy efficiency and the impact of damp and cold homes on residents’ health. The noble Lord, Lord Bourne, who is no longer in his place, talked about the fact that we have some of the oldest housing stock in Europe, so we need to do something about this. The noble Baroness explained clearly the importance of her amendment. We believe that the Government need to change their approach to energy efficiency and how they prioritise it going forward. I very much look forward to the Minister’s response.