Conservatives push to drop green building rules as climate stakes rise at party conferences
At the Tory conference, Kemi Badenoch pledged to scrap the Future Homes Standard, a move that could raise future household energy costs, while the Green Party announced a shift toward supporting nuclear power.
At this week’s Conservative conference, Kemi Badenoch highlighted the removal of the Future Homes Standard as a central promise, suggesting that future houses could be constructed without solar panels, heat pumps or robust insulation, which experts warn would increase energy bills for decades. Jan Rosenow of the University of Oxford warned that building fossil-fuel-dependent homes creates long-term liabilities and disrupts supply chains, while Simon McWhirter of the UK Green Building Council said the industry has already invested heavily to meet the standard.
The party also floated plans to abolish the Environment Agency and Natural England, prompting criticism from climate scholars like Robbie MacPherson. In a surprising policy reversal, the Green Party voted to back new nuclear reactors, a stance denounced by Paul Dorfman of the Nuclear Consulting Group as a misstep that could divert funds from faster renewable solutions. Labour’s conference featured Andy Burnham’s pledge for a publicly owned grid investment body and a fund to plant 500,000 trees, positioning the party as the climate-policy alternative. The debate unfolds ahead of the upcoming general election and a crucial byelection in Holborn and St Pancras, where climate issues are expected to influence voter choices.
Why it matters
Decisions on building standards and energy policy will shape UK household costs and climate progress for years to come.
How this story developed
- Sep 29 Andy Burnham signals possible UK return to the EU after condemning Brexit
- Sep 29 Labour leader Andy Burnham delivered his first conference speech, unveiling policy proposals on public ownership, pensions, and electoral reform.
- Sep 30 The Prime Minister now says re‑joining the EU is among the options the government will consider.
- Sep 30 Burnham signaled that full EU membership is among the possible routes Labour could evaluate.
- Oct 3 A new poll shows half of British adults now support rejoining the EU.
- Oct 4 Kemi Badenoch opened the Conservative conference by framing the Tories as a common-sense party, unveiling pledges on tighter welfare, prison expansion and free childcare for high-earning families.
- Oct 5 Badenoch pushed to drop the £100,000 childcare tax cap at the conference.
- Oct 6 Announced a cut to employer National Insurance for 21‑ to 24‑year‑olds from 15% to 7.5%.
- Oct 7 Badenoch announced a defence spending target of 3% of GDP.
- Oct 8 Badenoch denounced Reform UK as ethnically exclusive at the conference.
- Oct 8 Burnham announced that the pension triple‑lock will be scrapped after the next general election and its savings will fund a National Care Service.
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