Rounding a Corner Towards a Sustainable Future
As the new Government settle into their seats with a “seismic mandate for change”, we at UKGBC are determined to make this next chapter pivotal in our mission to radically improve the sustainability of the built environment.
We are looking forward to building on the relationships we’ve been fostering with Labour and civil servants over the last months and years – indeed, since we last worked closely with them as the government of the day – to continue to represent the voice of the built environment to drive policy-making towards a sustainable future.
The new Government has emphasised that it wants an active and visible partnership with industry to deliver its agenda. We worked closely with the previous Labour Government – convening roundtables to develop and stress test policy ideas, organising ministerial site visits, providing successful case studies and media quotes in support of policies where we agreed and challenging them where we disagreed. More recently, we’ve been building relationships and taking the game-changing policy proposals co-developed with our members into conversations with some of the key political players of the new Government like Ed Miliband and Matthew Pennycook and the advisors and civil servants that now support every key ministry.
The new Government has a huge mandate to act on the signals and pledges made in Labour’s manifesto. We welcome the clear commitment to net zero and nature restoration, and appreciate that ambitious, sustained policy and meaningful resources are committed – including double the level of government investment for home retrofits.
But our analysis of the manifesto against our own rigorous work, including our whole life carbon roadmap, and our Upgrading Britain’s Homes national investment calculator, show us that more needs to be done to secure our future. Fortunately, we’ve long been working on detailed policy proposals and have been preparing for this moment internally, with members, and with policy-makers so are ready to hit the ground running.
The new Government will have its work cut out. The cost of living crisis and weaponisation of climate action as eco-elitism are a tough context. But we know that the solutions to social and environmental issues are allies, not enemies, and we have the policy proposals to help with both. We also know that buildings are central to much-needed action. As the new Government contends with the Committee for Climate Change’s 7th carbon budget and the UK’s 2030 Nationally Determined Contribution (our slice of action on the global stage) we will help them create the legislative infrastructure to meet these budgets.
As the scary state of repair of the UK’s buildings and infrastructure comes into ever-starker light, we will be there to demonstrate that we in the built environment sector have the skills and willingness ready to be deployed. we will keep working with industry and government to ensure that the innovative solutions our members are designing and implementing sit centre stage in addressing the interconnected social-environmental challenges.
Of course, we know that all these changes ahead are going to affect our businesses and organisations, and we in our sector need to be prepared. We stand ready to support here too.
We can continue to represent your voice to government, but also to brief industry on changes coming down the road.
We can help you train your teams, and ensure that you’re poised to navigate the stormy seas and exciting opportunities ahead.
We will build on our broad suit of guidance to ensure we as an industry are scaling up and rolling out best practice and delivering to the ambitious standards needed and anticipated.
If you would like to be part of supporting and shaping this important work, please do get in touch.
We are fortunate to have a fantastic, engaged, motivated membership and industry more broadly, and together we can make sure that the last government capable of pulling us back from the brink of climate and nature breakdown has all the industry expertise and visible support for bold action that it will need. We want history to look back on this period as a time of unprecedented transformation that ensured our collective, thriving, future.
Join our discussion on 25 July: New government – what to expect?
Learn more about our response to the new government:
Simon McWhirter: Labour’s Climate Mandate: Seizing the moment for a sustainable built environment
Related
Reflections on Leadership and Sustainability in the Built Environment
Retrofit: Operational energy in the spotlight
What’s next for Embodied Ecological Impacts?
Finding my voice: Reflections on the Future Leaders Programme
