Labour must resist housebuilders’ pleas to weaken green standards, experts say

Labour must stand firm against special pleading from housebuilders, who are likely to argue against fitting out new homes to stringent green standards, experts have warned.

The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, laid out sweeping changes to the planning system on Monday in her first speech on reviving economic growth while pursuing the climate goal of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

As well as lifting the ban on onshore wind in England, she reinstated targets on housebuilding, with 1.5m new homes to be built this parliament in England.

But Labour will face stiff opposition from housebuilders, if their behaviour in the past decade is any guide, according to experts approached by the Guardian. Housing developers saved many billions of pounds under the Conservatives – to whom they were some of the party’s biggest donors – when rules that would have forced them to build to low-carbon standards were scrapped.

The builders said the rules were too onerous and would add to the cost of new homes. Delaying the rules meant they saved about £5,000 per home on average by not having to fit high-grade insulation, heat pumps, solar panels and other green technology.

Their savings have come at a high cost to homeowners, however: the occupiers of the 1.5m new homes built since the rules were scrapped in 2015 will have to expensively retrofit their homes, at an average cost of £20,000 each.

Ed Matthew, the campaigns director at the E3G thinktank, warned the construction industry was likely to try the same special pleading with Labour: “Successive Tory governments caved into the powerful housebuilder lobby, who were major donors to the Conservatives,” he said.

“One of those housebuilders was paying more in bonuses to their executives each year than it would have cost them to make their homes reach the zero carbon standard.”

Related: Labour’s housing plans will use land twice size of Milton Keynes, expert says

He said Labour must act differently: “They will have to resist the siren calls of the housebuilding lobby who may try to use their muscle to put pressure on Labour ministers to water down the standard if they want to build homes fast – the same tactic they have used before.

“But this is just a ruse – they have had many years to prepare to implement [low-carbon] standards and zero carbon homes can now be built at volume. It will bring down emissions but it will also be crucial for bringing down energy bills. It is a win-win.”

Jess Ralston, of the nonprofit Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, urged Labour to enforce higher standards as quickly as possible .

“After major housebuilders successfully lobbied against higher standards over the last decade, it’s about time we got building regulations that ensure new homes are cheaper to run and help our energy security,” she said.

A government spokesperson said: “Our manifesto set out that we want exemplary development to be the norm, not the exception. We will take steps to ensure we are building more high-quality, well-designed and sustainable homes.

“We fully support the need for low carbon homes and will review proposals and feedback from the future homes standard consultation in due course.”

Failing to impose these standards has also hurt the UK’s ability to meet its carbon budgets, which are now way off track . There are also millions of existing homes that need upgrades, especially to help people struggling in cold, damp, mouldy homes that are endangering their health .

Labour will also face opposition from people and groups concerned about the impact of new housing on sensitive environmental sites and natural habitats. Yet building new homes need not be at the expense of nature, the chair of Natural England, Tony Juniper, said last year . He believes areas of the green belt could be built on, provided the government takes care.

One key way to do so is through “biodiversity net gain”, a rule that says developers must take steps to restore and improve conditions for wildlife and species, but allows them to do so at sites other than the ones they build on.

In theory, this requirement should boost the UK’s biodiversity in sum. Labour will have to prove that this is more than just a gesture, and results in genuine improvements to the plight of the UK’s rapidly declining wildlife and habitats.

Related: Four ways Labour could deliver on pledge to build 1.5m new homes

New homebuilding could also add to the UK’s sewage crisis, if done wrong. Massive underinvestment in sewage treatment works across the country must be addressed, campaigners have said.

This could prove a significant obstacle to Labour’s plans. For instance, in the south-east, where population pressure is particularly acute, the previous government’s target to build 10,450 new homes in the west Oxfordshire area by 2031 has come up against the reality that sewage treatment works cannot cope with the level of development.

Grampian conditions, planning diktats which halt development until sewage infrastructure has been upgraded, have been imposed on housing developments in several areas.

Similar submissions for Grampian conditions are being made on several areas over concerns that the wastewater infrastructure cannot cope with the extra demand.

These problems can be overcome, if Labour has the will to take on vested interests and “nimby” tendencies, experts say.

Simon McWhirter, the deputy chief executive of the UK Green Building Council, said: “[Labour needs] to help make home upgrades easy, ensure new buildings are greener and that our communities and town centres are refreshed and renewed and better prepared for our rapidly changing climate. Buildings can be absolutely pivotal in addressing our climate and cost of living woes.”