{"id":770887,"date":"2025-01-28T08:52:24","date_gmt":"2025-01-28T08:52:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/?p=770887"},"modified":"2025-01-28T08:52:24","modified_gmt":"2025-01-28T08:52:24","slug":"why-is-labour-failing-to-join-the-dots-on-housing-delivery-and-the-climate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/news\/opinion\/why-is-labour-failing-to-join-the-dots-on-housing-delivery-and-the-climate","title":{"rendered":"Why is Labour failing to join the dots on housing delivery and the climate?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By posting online a New Year\u2019s \u2018to-do\u2019 list (pictured<\/i>) with only six tasks on it, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) was asking for trouble.<\/span><\/p>\n

It could have been written at any point in the past 100 years. Dealing with structural injustices, boosting housebuilding and tackling poor housing quality are longstanding concerns.<\/span><\/p>\n

But times have changed and MHCLG doesn\u2019t seem to be keeping up. In 2025, the UK still has a housing crisis, but also less than a quarter of a century to totally rewire its built environment. We need to swap over 20 million gas boilers for heat pumps and other clean sources, insulate half of all homes and protect at least one fifth from rising temperatures. <\/span><\/p>\n

We must radically change how we build, massively downscaling the use of materials such as concrete and steel. How dystopian, then, that there is not a hint of this mission in MHCLG\u2019s list. And how unnecessary, when environmental and housing goals can be tackled simultaneously.<\/span><\/p>\n

Building safety, private rental reform and Awaab\u2019s Law, which relates to mould and other health issues, all connect through retrofit, which is an opportunity to make homes warm, safe and sustainable in one go. The Renters\u2019 Rights Bill was expected to include requirements for landlords to improve home energy efficiency, but it has been kicked down the road. <\/span><\/p>\n

Private rented homes are, on average, less energy-efficient than social homes, with a fifth of renters living in \u2018non-decent\u2019 homes and a quarter in fuel poverty. Tenants gain most benefit from energy bill savings and improvements, but without regulation there is little to incentivise landlords to retrofit.<\/span><\/p>\n

Climate levers also emerge through MHCLG\u2019s core responsibility \u2013 planning. Last month, the ministry and Defra published a joint letter claiming the Tories had \u2018pitted housing against nature\u2019. But, despite recognising the connections, their solution was a conservation fund for new developments. <\/span><\/p>\n

They did not address the unresolved tension between housing targets and climate impacts: homebuilding in the UK relies on the use of concrete and steel, staggeringly destructive and polluting materials. There are design solutions, but they need investment, attention and collaboration between industry and government.<\/span><\/p>\n

Not mentioned on the MHCLG\u2019s list is housing affordability. Among the many intersections between housing economics and the climate crisis, at a basic level housing affordability leaves little money to spare for retrofits. Homeowners have record high mortgages, social housing providers are chronically underfunded and tenants can\u2019t make permanent environmental improvements to their homes.<\/span><\/p>\n

But solutions designed to ease affordability can also accommodate environmental priorities. Co-operative ownership models can manage places for broad community benefits, not just profits. Property-linked finance can fund home improvements, paid back through energy bill savings. Housing or land tax reforms could enable councils to recoup the benefits of investments in low-carbon infrastructure and green space. There are opportunities for bold new housing policies that tackle issues concurrently.<\/span><\/p>\n

Perhaps MHCLG is burying climate concerns under housing concerns to make them more palatable? While this may be happening behind the scenes, in reality the government has prevaricated on, or ruled out, many of the most impactful housing\/climate levers it has. Crucially, it has delayed efforts to tighten energy efficiency standards and scrapped plans to ban gas boilers.<\/span><\/p>\n

Keir Starmer wants to \u2018rebuild\u2019 as ambitiously as after the Second World War. This famously involved enough homebuilding to change the face of the built environment, creating local authority architecture departments, work for thousands of companies and new approaches to development. <\/span><\/p>\n

We still need housing transformation in 2025, but now we must use retrofits, climate-safe building and sustainable infrastructure. This can still help solve the housing crisis \u2013 but it really must be on the to-do list.<\/span><\/p>\n

Martha Dillon is a writer on climate justice, housing and the built environment<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By posting online a New Year\u2019s \u2018to-do\u2019 list (pictured) with only six tasks on it, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) was asking for trouble. It could have been written at any point in the past 100 years. 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