Retrofitting Buildings: National Strategy
Debate between Baroness Bloomfield of Hinton Waldrist and Baroness Blackstone
Baroness Blackstone
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have (1) to publish the lessons learned from the Green Homes Grant, and (2) to introduce a national strategy for retrofitting buildings.
Baroness Bloomfield of Hinton Waldrist (Con)
The government response to the Public Accounts Committee report on the green homes grant voucher scheme, published on 24 February 2022, discussed a number of lessons. IPSOS is also undertaking an independent evaluation, due for publication in autumn 2023. The heat and buildings strategy sets out the actions that we will be taking to reduce emissions from buildings and provides the long-term framework to enable industry to invest and deliver the transition to low-carbon heating.
Baroness Blackstone (Ind Lab)
My Lords, I thank the Minister for her reply, but I am sure she will agree that the failure of the green homes grant, which was eventually scrapped, was largely due to the lack of skilled and trained workers in the construction industry to undertake the work needed. Should not the short-term measures that were involved in the green homes grant be replaced by a genuine long-term funded strategy that emphasises training and skilling? Does she agree that, without that, it is very likely that we will not achieve our decarbonisation targets, and fuel poverty will go on increasing?
Baroness Bloomfield of Hinton Waldrist (Con)
I could not agree more with the thrust of the noble Baroness’s question. The heat and buildings strategy is designed to provide a long-term framework for these initiatives. We are investing £2.5 billion in a national skills fund to support the immediate economic recovery and the skills needed to deliver on our net-zero targets, and we invested £6.9 million alongside the green homes grant voucher scheme to deliver over 8,000 training opportunities. We are continuing to work with businesses and key industry bodies and have launched the Green Jobs Taskforce to produce an action plan for just this sort of initiative.
Clean Energy Transition Guidance
Debate between Baroness Bloomfield of Hinton Waldrist and Baroness Blackstone
Baroness Blackstone
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the impact their document Aligning UK international support for the clean energy transition guidance, published on 31 March, will have on international fossil fuel investment; and what discussions they have had with other Governments about implementing such guidance.
Baroness Bloomfield of Hinton Waldrist (Con)
The Government are grateful for the positive response from international partners to this new world-leading UK policy position. We have held productive discussions with like-minded countries on this agenda, including through our G7 presidency and broader initiatives, such as the E3F export finance coalition. It is encouraging to see an increasing number of similar commitments from key partners, such as the United States, in aligning their support towards clean energy.
Baroness Blackstone (Ind Lab)
My Lords, I very much welcome the Government’s new policy ending support for overseas fossil fuel projects, but the CDC is able to make investments in financial institutions, which, in turn, will continue to make investments in fossil fuels. How are the Government going to stop public money supporting fossil fuels in this way?
Hydrogen Sector
Debate between Baroness Bloomfield of Hinton Waldrist and Baroness Blackstone
Baroness Bloomfield of Hinton Waldrist (Con)
The noble Baroness is right to point out the positive moves that the whole country, the industry and the Government are making in this area. The UK is ideally positioned to benefit from the potential of low-carbon hydrogen, which could unlock up to 100,000 domestic and export jobs by 2050. We have set out a clear ambition and are developing a strong policy package to support it, including the £240 million that I have mentioned, which will speed up deployment of low-carbon production as well as hydrogen business models and the revenue mechanism behind them. It is these initiatives that will stimulate the billions of pounds of private investment that the noble Baroness referred to.
Baroness Blackstone (Ind Lab)
My Lords, given that the Hydrogen Taskforce estimates that the UK hydrogen economy can create and sustain 75,000 jobs—I note that the Minister mentioned 100,000 jobs just now—what new training programmes are being developed to ensure that there are sufficient highly-qualified people to take these jobs?
Baroness Bloomfield of Hinton Waldrist (Con)
I cannot answer that question in specific terms. All I can say is that the money being invested in apprenticeship programmes across industry will help to develop that. If I can get some further information for the noble Baroness, I will write to her with more details.