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 (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
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 - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department 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 - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department 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 - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department 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.