‘We need less point scoring’: What party conference season taught us about UK climate action

Kemi Badenoch made scrapping the future homes standard a central plank of her bid to become the next prime minister in Birmingham. Photograph: Tolga Akmen/EPAView image in fullscreenKemi Badenoch made scrapping the future homes standard a central plank of her bid to become the next prime minister in Birmingham. Photograph: Tolga Akmen/EPAAnalysis‘We need less point scoring’: What party conference season taught us about UK climate actionFiona Harvey Environment editorTories plan to scrap low-carbon housebuilding, Greens back new nuclear reactors, and Labour put oil-drilling decisions on hold

New homes could be built without solar panels, heat pumps and high-grade insulation, leading to higher household bills if the Conservative party wins the next general election.

Kemi Badenoch made scrapping the future homes standard (FHS) one of the central planks of her bid to become the next prime minister at the Tory party conference this week.

The announcement gained little attention compared to her inheritance tax bombshell, but it would have more far-reaching impacts on a greater number of people. The UK is in need of approximately 6m new homes and failing to equip them with efficient and low-carbon energy sources would doom households to higher bills for decades to come.

Read moreThe Tories quoted estimates of £30,000 for new-build houses, but the real cost is likely to be much less. Installing heat pumps, solar panels, batteries and insulation costs about £5,000 to £8,000 at the point of building – a figure estimated in 2024 when energy prices were much lower – to save more than £1,300 a year on bills, a saving likely to be substantially higher now. To retrofit homes after building would cost more than £20,000.

Jan Rosenow, a professor of climate and energy policy at the University of Oxford, said: “Every home constructed today that runs on fossil fuels is a liability for the occupants. It also results in investor uncertainty and disrupts the supply chain that has been gearing up for this. What we need is less political point scoring and more long-term clarity.”

View image in fullscreenConstruction workers install solar panels on a house in the north-east of England. Photograph: Washington Imaging/AlamyHousebuilders have been among the biggest donors to the Conservative party, though this has fallen off in recent years. And according to the UK Green Building Council (UKGBC), the construction industry is well prepared for the FHS and will have to implement the policy before the next general election, so scrapping it is of little benefit.

Simon McWhirter, the chief executive of UKGBC, said: “The housebuilding industry has spent years preparing for the introduction of the FHS, investing in skills, supply chains and new products. Reversing course would … risk slowing progress towards building the homes that people want and need.”

Badenoch’s housebuilding plans are only part of a torching of the Tories’ green policies. Despite the crisis of sewage and farm pollution in the UK’s rivers and beaches, and the dramatic drop in wildlife, the party would abolish the Environment Agency and Natural England.

The party’s U-turn on environmental issues and net zero was contrary to what voters wanted, said Robbie MacPherson, Kennedy scholar at Harvard University and the former head of the UK’s all-party parliamentary group on climate. “No winning political strategy, after years of fossil fuel-driven energy price spikes and a summer of climate breakdown, can include environmental regression.

“Voters won’t reward politicians who want to kill employment opportunities, spurn economic growth and fail to keep Britain safe.”

While the Conservatives spent their party conference burning their green credentials, an equally unexpected U-turn came from the Green party, which resolved last weekend to abandon its long-held opposition to nuclear power.

View image in fullscreenZack Polanski at the party conference in Bournemouth. The Greens will still prioritise renewable energy but MPs will now support new nuclear reactors. Photograph: PA Images/Alamy Stock Photo/Alamy Live NewsAlthough the party would still prioritise renewable energy, Green MPs could now support new reactors, in recognition of their potential role in low-carbon generation.

Read morePaul Dorfman, Bennett scholar at the University of Sussex and the chair of the Nuclear Consulting Group thinktank, said: “The Green party has taken a wrong turn on nuclear and this will lose them significant grassroot support and votes.

“With 20-plus-year construction times, repeated delays and huge cost overruns, new nuclear diverts scarce resources from faster options. Renewables, storage, efficiency and stronger grids can deliver much more for every pound spent.”