Energy and Housing Bills included in the King’s Speech

The King's Speech took place earlier today to mark the start of the new Parliamentary year. Several draft Bills relevant to the environment and wider sustainability sector were introduced. In this short blog Ben Goodwin, IEMA's Director of Policy and Public Affairs, reflects on some of the key announcements.

As expected, a Bill aimed at creating 'energy independence' for the UK was included as part of the speech. The Bill will lay the legislative groundwork for establishing Great British Energy (GB Energy) and putting the UK on course to fully decarbonise electricity generation by 2030.

GB Energy is expected to work in a similar way to the current UK Infrastructure Bank. In this respect, it will co-invest with the private sector in emerging energy technologies to help them compete with those that are more established. This could include things like green hydrogen and floating offshore wind farms, for example.

The Bill follows the appointment of Chris Stark, the former Head of the Climate Change Committee, to lead the UK's charge towards clean electricity.

It also comes after last week’s speedy decision to get onshore wind back up and running again. This is hugely welcome, but we also need to see rapid progress in other areas to drive decarbonisation more widely. This includes the deployment of charging infrastructure to support the rollout of electric vehicles and the design of a Future Homes Standard that will make new homes significantly more energy efficient than our current housing stock.

Underpinning these policies and measures, is of course the need for a green jobs plan to be urgently published. This must set out how the skills and jobs pipeline required to deliver decarbonisation across the economy will be developed. We expect that this would dovetail with announcements made by the King to establish Skills England and to reform the Apprenticeship Levy.

A Bill focused on getting housing built was, as expected, also introduced by the King. This of course follows the new Chancellor’s, Rachel Reeves, announcement last week that the Labour Party will build 1.5 million homes across the new Parliament.

There’s no denying that the delivery of new housing is a critical policy goal. Fixing supply issues and the financial pressures that this in turn places on both renters and owners should certainly be addressed with speed.

However, building new housing must be done in a way that respects the natural environment. All development should be subject to thorough environmental assessment, and we must avoid any repeat of the nutrient neutrality debacle that we saw in 2023.

Had amendments to the then Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill been carried out, we would now be in a position whereby the requirement for many development projects to deliver ‘nutrient neutrality’ in protected areas would have been removed, leading to the pollution of rivers and streams across England.

Other Bills that were announced included those for creating a more sustainable aviation industry and for strengthening the regulation of water companies.

A Bill that IEMA was keeping tabs on before Parliament was dissolved, following the announcement of the general election, was the Climate and Nature Bill.

The Bill would have required the United Kingdom to achieve climate and nature targets; to give the Secretary of State a duty to implement a strategy to achieve those targets; to establish a Climate and Nature Assembly to advise the Secretary of State in creating that strategy; to give duties to the Committee on Climate Change and the Joint Nature Conservation Committee regarding the strategy and targets; and for connected purposes.

The Bill did not make it to its second reading in the Commons, therefore falling at a very early stage.

We’ve supported Zero Hour’s campaign on this Bill because it’s the only legislation that has been put before the UK Parliament that ensures a comprehensive and joined-up approach to the biodiversity and climate crises, which are inextricably linked.

We hope to see it re-introduced in due course.