Asked by: Andrew Cooper (Labour - Mid Cheshire)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of support to de-carbonise heavy industry.
Answered by Chris McDonald - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Government is providing a range of support to decarbonise heavy industry while keeping competitiveness.
In May, government announced a new £470m funding package for chemicals and ceramics to back decarbonisation and resilience in these sectors.
Government also offers a range of support to enable hydrogen use in industrial sectors, including business models for production and transport and storage; and in September 2025, government also signed a contract with Padeswood, the UK’ first carbon capture-enabled cement plant.
The Industrial Energy Transformation Fund also made around £500m available to support UK industry to decarbonise.
Government continues to keep its approach under review.
Asked by: Andrew Cooper (Labour - Mid Cheshire)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what assessment he has made of the industries which can only be decarbonised by switching to hydrogen energy.
Answered by Michael Shanks - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
We recognise that some industrial sectors are particularly hard to electrify and are therefore expected to require hydrogen to decarbonise, including processes such as chemical production and refining. Electrification is expected to play the primary role across most of industry, with hydrogen playing a more focused role where alternatives are not feasible.
We plan to publish the renewed Hydrogen Strategy, alongside a package of other hydrogen policy documents, as soon as possible this year.
The Strategy will set out Government’s vision and objectives for hydrogen, and how we intend to work with industry to continue to transform ambition into action.
Asked by: Andrew Cooper (Labour - Mid Cheshire)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether he has considered the potential merits of publishing the updated UK hydrogen strategy before the end of July 2026.
Answered by Michael Shanks - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
We understand the importance of providing clarity to businesses across the hydrogen sector. The renewed Hydrogen Strategy will set out Government’s vision and objectives for hydrogen, and how we intend to work with industry to continue to transform ambition into action. We plan to publish the Strategy, alongside a package of other hydrogen policy documents, as soon as possible this year.
In the meantime, we remain focused on delivery and are supporting projects currently in the pipeline, with projects that were successful in HAR1 now moving to the final investment decision, construction and operation phases.
Asked by: Andrew Cooper (Labour - Mid Cheshire)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what assessment he has made of required pace of hydrogen network rollout to aid industrial decarbonisation in order to (a) meet the UK’s decarbonisation targets and (b) avoid a potential adverse impact on viability as industries come into scope of CBAM.
Answered by Michael Shanks - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
We recognise that hydrogen will play an important but focused role in decarbonising hard‑to‑electrify industrial sectors, particularly within industrial clusters where shared transport and storage infrastructure can be developed efficiently.
We have confirmed over £500 million to support hydrogen infrastructure and enable the development of the UK’s first regional hydrogen network. We aim to launch the first transport and storage allocation rounds in 2026.
We plan to publish the renewed Hydrogen Strategy, alongside a package of other hydrogen policy documents, as soon as possible this year.
The Strategy will set out Government’s vision and objectives for hydrogen, and how we intend to work with industry to continue to transform ambition into action.
Asked by: Andrew Cooper (Labour - Mid Cheshire)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps he is taking to support the development of carbon capture and storage technology.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
Carbon Capture has a fundamental role to play in our clean energy future. That’s why we’ve committed £21.7bn to kickstart the industry. And last week, we saw an historic deal signed to get the UK’s first project, the East Coast Cluster, off the ground.
That project will create thousands of jobs across the northeast, ensuring our industrial communities, particularly in Teesside, benefit from new opportunities in the industries of the future.
Asked by: Andrew Cooper (Labour - Mid Cheshire)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of requiring mortgage providers to reflect the EPC rating of properties in their mortgage rate offers to consumers.
Answered by Miatta Fahnbulleh - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
The pricing of mortgages is a commercial decision for lenders. Currently the market provides a range of products such as green mortgages that can offer reduced rates or cashback for borrowers where certain conditions are met.
Any borrower seeking one of these products should speak to a mortgage broker, who will be able to assist them in finding the best possible product for their circumstances.
As part of the Warm Homes Plan, Government is exploring options for working with lenders to further scale up and diversify the private green finance options available to homeowners to support low carbon heating and energy efficiency retrofit.
Asked by: Andrew Cooper (Labour - Mid Cheshire)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, if he will make an estimate of the proportion of households in (a) Mid Cheshire constituency, (b) Cheshire and (c) England that spent more than 10% of their income on energy costs in each of the last three years.
Answered by Miatta Fahnbulleh - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
The latest statistics for the number of households in fuel poverty (using the Low Income Low Energy Efficiency fuel poverty metric) in parliamentary constituencies in England, can be found in the published sub-regional fuel poverty statistics, in Table 4: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/sub-regional-fuel-poverty-2023-2021-data
The latest official Fuel Poverty Statistics for England were published in February 2024 here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/fuel-poverty-statistics#2023-statistics
Annex D of the report and table 20 of the Trends tables include statistics from 2010 to 2024 using an affordability measure of the number of households required to spend more than 10 per cent of their income on domestic energy. Affordability measure estimates are not held at sub-national level.
Asked by: Andrew Cooper (Labour - Mid Cheshire)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, if he will make an estimate of the number of pensioners who will be in fuel poverty in winter 2024-25.
Answered by Miatta Fahnbulleh - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
The latest statistics on fuel poverty in England cover 2023 and can be found in the published Official Statistics: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/fuel-poverty-statistics. Table 23 and Table 30 provide estimates of the number of households in fuel poverty by age of the oldest person in the household, and by employment status of the household reference person, respectively. Statistics for 2024 will be published in early 2025.