NHC provide evidence to Commons Net Zero Inquiry

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On Monday 12th July, the NHC’s Brian Robson appeared before the House of Commons Housing, Communities and Local Government Select Committee to provide evidence as part of the Committee’s inquiry into Local Government and Net Zero.

As part of a session focused on housing, local government and net zero, the committee covered a wide range of ground:

  • On Retrofit, Brian noted the potential for 77,000 jobs undertaking green home upgrades across the North, and called for the Chancellor to bring forward the £3.8bn Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund in his Autumn Spending Review, injecting confidence into the market, growing the skills and the supply chain we need across all tenures
  • Responding to a question around the role of local authorities, Brian shared with the Committee the NHC’s research on the loss of over 50% of the North’s housing and planning capacity since 2010, and argued that local authority capacity needs to underpin everything we do on net zero. He argued that the relative success of the local authority delivery element of net zero: upgrading 55,000 homes from a standing start 12 months ago, showed what local authorities can do when they are put in the driving seat
  • On the Future Homes Standard, Brian noted that over 5 million existing homes across the North will require retrofit measures, and that we cannot afford to add to this total by building new homes that will require retrofit in future. It is cheaper and less disruptive to get it right first time. He made the case for local authorities to continue to be able to set higher standards, where this is felt appropriate.

 

The HCLG Select Committee is an influential cross-party committee which conducts inquiries linked to the remit of the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government. Upon production of a Select Committee report, Government must respond to the recommendations of the Committee. The NHC submits written evidence to a range of Select Committee inquiries, and this is the third time in 18months that our team have been called to give oral evidence off the back of a written submission.

Commenting, NHC Chief Executive Tracy Harrison said “I’m delighted that the evidence base we have assembled on issues that matter to our members continues to attract the interest of influential select committees. It is heartening that we are able to represent our members interests in this way, and I look forward to reading the Committee’s final report in due course.”

Members can:

For further details on the NHC’s activity responding to calls for evidence and consultations, contact Karen Brown (Senior Policy Advisor) karen.brown@northern-consortium.org.uk