Sir Keir Starmer used his keynote address at the Labour Party conference to press the importance of energy efficiency in housing.

He slammed the Conservatives for scrapping the zero carbon home scheme that was introduced under Labour and said “if we are serious about climate change we will need to upgrade our homes.”

He added: “The Tories inherited plans from Labour to make every new home zero carbon. They scrapped them and now we have a crisis in energy prices emissions from homes have increased and we have the least energy-efficient housing in Europe.

“So it will be Labour’s national mission over the next decade, to fit out every home that needs it, to make sure it is warm, well-insulated and costs less to heat and we will create thousands of jobs in the process.”

Also on housing, Starmer said: “None of the lessons of Covid are heeded. The flaws that were brutally exposed by the pandemic all worsen. Childhood poverty increases. The crisis in social care gets worse. The housing market is still broken. Slow and steady decline.”

However, there was no mention of Grenfell Tower or any mention of social housing.