High Court agrees to hear legal challenge over Gove’s green homes ‘roadblock’
With the support of the Good Law Project, we are challenging the written ministerial statement (WMS), published in December 2023, which limits councils setting higher energy efficiency standards for new housing schemes. This follows on from our successful challenge in the High Court earlier this year over attempts to water down the net zero ambitions of the Salt Cross Garden Village development.
In April 2024, permission was granted for a judicial review of written ministerial statement, with a date set for 18-19th June 2024.
We believe that the barriers Michael Gove is putting in the way of the next generation of housing are unlawful, blocking efforts to tackle the climate emergency and cost of living crisis.
We will argue that this WMS cuts across the objectives of the Climate Change Act 2008 and that the government has failed properly to apply its own Environment Act 2021, which requires policy to be assessed for its environmental impacts.
“This is a policy disaster. We know that councils in England want to plan for warm homes that are affordable to heat, but their plans are being crushed by Michael Gove. It’s homeowners of new properties who will pay the price again and again for this huge mistake.
Laws to protect the environment and to guard against exactly this sort of Ministerial folly need to come into their own and force a change in the Government’s approach so that Councils can plan for zero carbon places.”
This will be one of the first reported cases to consider the scope of the duty to have due regard to the EPPS in the formulation of government policy.
We are not alone. 50 councils, businesses and charities have joined with the Town and Country Planning Association to brand Gove’s policy “unnecessarily draconian”. TV presenter, leading designer and campaigner Kevin McCloud is backing the legal challenge and has labelled the ministerial statement “a policy disaster”.
More than 4,000 people have emailed Gove’s office to raise their concerns in response to the Good Law Project’s campaign (add your voice here!)
“It is hard to believe, but it is true, that homes are being built today, perfectly lawfully, that are so poorly insulated that they will later need to be fitted with extra insulation. This will be costly, wasteful and an enormous headache for homeowners.
“Worse still - Michael Gove has adopted a Ministerial Statement which has the effect of discouraging the building of homes to a sustainable standard. This will be beneficial in the short term for the huge housebuilders and developers that fund the Conservative Party - and terrible for everyone else. We think it’s time to say ‘enough.”
