Environment rules shouldn’t be scarified for new developments, says Labour
The shadow housing minister has explained at yesterday’s Labour political party conference that there are different ways to solve nutrient neutrality.
In September, the current UK government proposed reforms to rules protecting British waterways from pollution, but they weren’t met with open arms. People following the Labour party even voted against the amendment to the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill.
However, the government have since declared they will pursue the reforms through standalone legislation.
Despite this, Matthew Pennycook an opposition housing spokesperson, said at the Labour party fringe event that the political party could continue to do everything in their power to stop housing developments from destroying our natural world.
Mr Pennycook said: ‘We have had a big fight, I am sure you will have seen, over nutrient neutrality, because the current government thinks the only way to build these houses in these areas is to disapply environmental rules.
‘We think there is a different way though…there are ways to do it, there are obvious policy solutions.’
In addition, Mr Pennycook also referred to a recent House of Lords’ built environment committee report which detailed ‘quite exhaustively how contradictory many elements of the government’s approach to housebuilding and the environment are.
‘We see it with delays on BNG [and] delays on energy efficiency standards.’
Last month, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak unveiled his plans to scrap higher energy efficiency standards in private rented homes which have been in place since 2018 and in 2021 the government proposed stricter standards in new tenancies from 2025 and in all tenancies from 2028.
Against this backdrop, Baroness Taylor, Labour’s Lords spokesperson for Levelling Up, also re-iterated the party’s views on the subject.
At the conference she said: ‘We desperately, desperately need housing and no-one is more passionate about that than me, but we cannot do that at the expense of our environment.’
Although, this opinion was not echoed through the entire Labour party. Abdi Duale, who features on the party’s national executive committee, said the party had ‘come along way’ from the days of describing planning reform as a ‘developers’ charter’.
Image: Thomas Richter
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