The government will water down its net zero commitments, including ditching tougher energy efficiency rules for landlords.
The prime minister is expected to drop plans for new energy-efficiency targets for private rented homes after ministers considered imposing fines on landlords who failed to upgrade their properties.
He will also this week announce that the government is abandoning its ambition to ban new gas boilers from 2035, arguing that an arbitrary deadline would impose unnecessary costs on households.
It is understood that the PM will also delay the planned ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2030 to 2035 after criticism from some Conservative backbenchers and parts of the car industry.
Rishi Sunak said last night: “This realism doesn’t mean losing our ambition or abandoning our commitments. I am proud that Britain is leading the world on climate change. We are committed to net zero by 2050 and the agreements we have made internationally – but doing so in a better, more proportionate way.”
Sir Simon Clarke, the former levelling up secretary, said: “We should be exceptionally careful of seeking to extract political advantage on this issue when the efforts of successive prime ministers – the majority of them Conservative – have been dedicated to upholding what Margaret Thatcher called a ‘full repairing lease’ on our planet.”
Chris Skidmore, a Conservative MP and former minister who produced a report on net zero for Sunak this year, said: “We will look back on this moment as Sunak’s slow-motion car crash.”
