Reform UK Birmingham has formally challenged the City Council’s plans to impose additional local Net Zero requirements on housebuilders and businesses.
The Home Builders Federation has estimated that existing national regulation and policy have already added £40,000 to the cost of building a new home. Birmingham should be removing unnecessary barriers to housebuilding, not adding more.
✅ We support brownfield development and protecting Birmingham’s Green Belt.
❌ We oppose additional Birmingham-specific Net Zero standards, carbon assessments and bureaucracy that will make building new homes more difficult and expensive.
We have also challenged rules requiring developers to justify demolishing existing buildings, potentially creating further obstacles to brownfield regeneration.
With more than 33,000 households on Birmingham’s housing waiting list, we urgently need more family and affordable homes.
Cllr Cherie Waddingham, Shadow Cabinet Member for Housing, said:
“Housebuilders are already facing considerable pressures, and the Council shouldn’t be making it even more difficult for them to build homes by adding further unnecessary costs on top of what are already demanding national standards.”
Cllr Jex Parkin, Leader of Reform UK Birmingham, said:
“Birmingham needs more homes, more businesses and more investment, not another layer of local Net Zero bureaucracy.
“The Green-Lib Dem Council should be doing everything it can to encourage housebuilding, attract investment and deliver the economic growth Birmingham desperately needs. Our detailed submission sets out where we believe its own Local Plan puts those objectives at risk.”
OUR SUBMISSION ALSO:
- Questions why the Council’s updated viability assessment and Infrastructure Delivery Plan were not available for scrutiny during consultation.
- Calls for clearer evidence that schools, healthcare, roads and other essential infrastructure will be funded and delivered alongside new housing.
- Opposes the proposed blanket 20mph limit on local roads and challenges parking policies and restrictions affecting motorists and businesses.