Kevin McCloud: ‘Sustainability isn’t a luxury, it’s a necessity’

Kevin McCloud has hit out at Government policy on new housing, declaring that Michael Gove’s new guidance to local authorities “isn’t up to scratch”.

In December, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities issued a statement that limits local authorities’ ability to set energy efficiency targets for new homes and undermines their powers to demand higher standards from developers.

According to McCloud, who has been active in the architecture sector for over two decades, it “makes absolute sense” for local authorities to impose better standards, to tackle both the climate emergency and the cost of living crisis.

“Sustainability isn’t a luxury,” McCloud said, “it’s a necessity.”

McCloud joins over 4,000 people who wrote to Michael Gove’s office calling for more Government action on green homes. He’s backing the joint legal challenge we’re taking with Rights Community Action against the new guidance.

According to Good Law Project’s Legal Manager, Ian Browne, it’s well past time for Gove to drop this “draconian policy”.

“There is no logic to the roadblock the Government has thrown down in front of local authorities’ plans to tackle fuel poverty and the climate emergency,” Browne said. “We now want to prove the Ministerial guidance is unlawful through the courts.”

Central Government needs to step out of the way and let local authorities take action to make homes that can help us get to net zero and tackle food poverty.

We can’t afford to miss this opportunity to unleash the next generation of better, greener homes.

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