Asked by: Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government what the relationship will be between the proposed Warm Homes Agency and Combined Authorities.
Answered by Lord Whitehead - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Warm Homes Agency will play a critical role in place-based delivery and work closely with local partners, including combined authorities. The Agency will seek to build on their good practice in local delivery, convening and supporting where necessary to build capacity to enable delivery to be led at a local level. The full scope of the Agency, including how it will work with combined authorities, is being finalised and will be confirmed in due course.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether the proposed Warm Homes Agency will allocate funding to Combined Authorities.
Answered by Lord Whitehead - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The full scope of the Warm Homes Agency, including any role in funding allocation, is being finalised and will be confirmed in due course.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government how they will allocate the £2 billion fund to support zero and low-interest loans for solar panels, batteries, and other technologies proposed in the Warm Homes Plan, published 21 January.
Answered by Lord Whitehead - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Working with the finance industry, government will allocate up to £1.7 billion of the up to £5 billion allocation to our new Warm Homes Fund to new low and zero interest consumer loans, to help more households meet the upfront costs of improving their homes. This funding would be made available to lenders who apply to participate in the scheme and will be combined with up to £300 million of other government funding to lower the cost of loans for consumers.
We will launch a Call for Evidence in early 2026 to identify where else in the market the Fund can deliver the greatest impact, for example in supporting private and social landlords, investors or supply chains, alongside homeowners.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government what the regional organisation of the proposed Warm Homes Agency will be.
Answered by Lord Whitehead - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Warm Homes Agency will seek to operate and optimise delivery at a local level, across the whole of the UK, subject to agreement with Devolved Governments. The Agency will work closely with local partners, supporting and bolstering excellent work already being delivered by many strategic and local authorities. The specifics of the scope of the Agency, including where it will operate and how it will be organised, are being finalised.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether local authorities will be able to access the £2 billion fund to support zero and low-interest loans for solar panels, batteries, and other technologies proposed in the Warm Homes Plan, published 21 January.
Answered by Lord Whitehead - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
We will look to use our new Warm Homes Fund to help local authorities accelerate their existing consumer offers for low carbon technologies. In addition, Crown Commercial Services and Great British Energy are testing approaches to aggregating demand for these technologies to drive down unit costs for both social housing landlords and the public sector estate.
The Government will also provide support to local government, enabling successful delivery at the local level, including through the new Warm Homes Agency which will play a pivotal role in supporting local partnerships, convening, facilitating and supporting where necessary to build capacity within local government. Government is also funding five Local Net Zero Hubs which support local authorities to develop decarbonisation projects and attract commercial interest.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they will commit to working with institutions such as universities to develop policies to combat climate change and stimulate green growth.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Shadow Minister (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Government funds research to provide evidence to support the development of energy, climate change, and green growth policies. This research is competitively tendered and is delivered typically by academic institutions, consultancies, SMEs, or a combination.