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Planning and Energy Bill

My hon. Friend makes an important point. That is exactly what my new clause would achieve. It would enable his local authority, or mine, if it so wished, to get tough with landlords carrying out such flat conversions as regards complying with the regulations. The building regulations as they stand may not be as tough as they should be, and the new clause would enable a local authority to set standards—they would have to be common-sense standards—that went beyond them. Different areas have different housing needs and demands and different sorts of housing developments. My hon. Friend's constituency probably has a much greater proportion of flat conversions than we have in outer London, so the problems are slightly different. Under my new clause, his local authority would be able, in relation to such properties, to impose"““requirements for insulation standards in domestic and commercial developments in their area””." I see no reason why that could not be broken down between different types of domestic development. For insulation against noise, although we are talking particularly about that geared towards energy, there would be different requirements for a detached house than for a conversion to four flats in a former terrace. A much higher standard of insulation would be required, perhaps as much as for noise as for heat, between the floors and between the properties to either side. My hon. Friend's local authority could want to impose higher or different standards. That is the beauty of the approach taken by the hon. Member for Sevenoaks in clause 1 and in my new clause 1, which would enable local authorities to tailor the particular demands of their people to the requirements of the regulations that they wished to impose beyond the Government minimum safety net.