The Grand Designs presenter has appeared in a video supporting a legal challenge brought against the government by non-profit law reform campaign body Good Law Project and climate campaigners Rights Community Action (RCA).
Speaking in the video, McCloud claims the supply of UK houses that are ‘fit for the future’ is being hampered by national building policy, despite the country being ‘in dire need” of new homes.
Good Law Project and RCA argue that government policy is unlawful because it prevents local authorities from setting more ambitious sustainability requirements for new housing developments than those required by national building standards. They add that the policy ‘stalls progress in a crucial area’.
The government’s guidance on building was issued in the form of a written ministerial statement from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLHUC) on 13 December.
It stated: ‘The government does not expect plan-makers to set local energy efficiency standards for buildings that go beyond current or planned buildings regulations.
‘The proliferation of multiple local standards by local authority area can add further costs to building new homes by adding complexity and undermining economies of scale.’
The statement goes on to insist that any planning policies which propose local energy efficiency standards for buildings that go beyond current or planned buildings regulation should be ‘rejected at examination’, unless they have a ‘well-reasoned and robustly costed rationale’.
‘This policy disaster stalls progress in a crucial area’
The legal challengers, backed by McCloud, claim the policy ‘muddies the waters around energy efficiency, making it much harder for local planning authorities to set targets in line with net zero’.
McCloud said: ‘It makes absolute sense that local authorities should be able to impose better standards on builders and developers when it comes to delivering new housing. But central government has put barriers in place restricting local authorities from doing anything that exceeds national policy.’
He continued: ‘National policy just isn’t up to scratch. And the irony is that, by limiting local authorities, central government is in effect hampering its own climate pledges.’
Describing sustainability as ‘a necessity rather than a luxury’, he called for control to be handed back to local authorities, insisting: ‘Let’s not miss the opportunity to build better, greener homes.’
Ian Browne, legal manager at Good Law Project, added: ‘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.
‘We now want to prove the guidance is unlawful through the courts.’
Earlier this year, RCA won aseparate legal battle against the government over its ‘watering down’ of West Oxfordshire Council’s plans for a net zero garden village, which the government had claimed were ‘too prescriptive’ and ‘not pragmatic’.
On 20 February, a High Court judge ruled that the planning inspectorate’s interpretation of a 2015 ministerial statement on policy ‘so as to prevent or restrict the ability of the local planning authority to set a standard higher than Level 4’ for the garden village was ‘plainly wrong’.
DLHUC has been approached for comment.