We’re in court tomorrow to demand homes fit for the future

We’re at the High Court tomorrow with Rights Community Action to demand stronger government action on green homes.

Last year Michael Gove put up barriers to local planning authorities building energy-efficient homes – homes that tackle fuel poverty and the climate crisis. 

At the two-day hearing, we’ll be helping to make the argument that Gove’s massive overreach of central government power is unlawful because it does not meet the objectives of the Climate Change Act 2008. 

As Kevin McCloud said this week, “There is a tremendous amount of confusion deliberately being sown by central government in order to confuse and bamboozle local authorities”. 

Local authority and industry planning leaders have also spoken out against the new rules. According to Nicola Melville at Essex Planning Officers Association, Gove’s policy has “jeopardised” work on housing that’s built for our changing world. For Andrea McMillan at East Suffolk Council, the new framework “limits the options available” to set more ambitious planning policies on energy. 

Almost 6,000 of our supporters emailed Gove to challenge this backwards-looking guidance.

Good Law Project legal manager Bekah Sparrow said that in the middle of a climate crisis and with soaring energy bills, ministers should be doing all they can to “turbo boost the UK’s ability to deliver energy-efficient homes”. 

“We hope the High Court will take action so the next government is forced to take our climate commitments seriously and ensure the UK starts playing a proper and responsible role in the battle against the climate crisis,” Sparrow said. 

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

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