asked Her Majesty's Government:

Further to the Written Answer by Baroness Andrews on 21 March 2007 (WA 199), what progress has been made towards improving the building regulations energy performance standards. [HL332]

On 23 July 2007, the Government confirmed, through the housing Green Paper, their timetable for moving to zero-carbon new dwellings and the role that the building regulations will play in this.

To deliver this timetable, Part L of the building regulations which sets energy performance standards will be amended in 2010, 2013 and 2016.

The standards that will be set for new dwellings at each of these milestones has already been announced (25 per cent improvement in 2010; 44 per cent in 2013; and zero-carbon in 2016). The performance standards for existing dwellings and for other types of buildings will be considered in the run-up to the 2010 amendment of Part L and will be consulted on in the normal way.