Asked by: Bim Afolami (Conservative - Hitchin and Harpenden)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what plans his Department has to engage with local communities on the building of renewable energy projects, such as onshore wind farms.
Answered by Greg Hands
The Government wants to encourage renewable energy developers to continue to engage with local communities as the Government increased deployment to reach net zero.
The Government recognises there are ranges of views on onshore wind and the Government wants to put communities in control of hosting onshore sites. In the British Energy Security Strategy, the Government committed to develop onshore wind partnerships in England. This will enable supportive communities to host new onshore wind infrastructure and enjoy the benefits of doing so, through developers supporting local energy discounts and new community infrastructure projects.
The Government will consult on the partnerships scheme later this year.
Asked by: Bim Afolami (Conservative - Hitchin and Harpenden)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure full checks are carried out to corroborate applicants are the occupiers at an address before utilities' contracts are transferred to a new account holder; and if he will take steps to help tackle incidents of fraudulent misrepresentation of utility contract holders.
Answered by Greg Hands
Gas and electricity supply licences enforced by the independent regulator, Ofgem, require energy suppliers to take all reasonable steps to ensure they have a valid contract with the customer before making a transfer request to switch their energy supply to avoid erroneous transfers.
Asked by: Bim Afolami (Conservative - Hitchin and Harpenden)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what plans his Department has for the future funding of Local Enterprise Partnerships.
Answered by Paul Scully
Decisions around the future funding of Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) beyond this financial year will be communicated in due course.
Asked by: Bim Afolami (Conservative - Hitchin and Harpenden)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department is taking to support small- and medium-sized enterprises to transition to net zero.
Answered by Greg Hands
The Department is taking many steps to encourage SMEs to transition to Net Zero and to support SMEs through the barriers which prevent the transition.
Ahead of COP26, BEIS has launched the Together for Our Planet Business Climate Leaders’ campaign, which has encouraged over 1,900 small and micro businesses across the UK to join the Race to Zero by making the SME Climate Commitment.
In order to help SMEs overcome barriers to investing in energy efficiency BEIS launched the Boosting Access for SMEs to Energy Efficiency innovation competition. The competition offered up to £6m to fund the development of new, innovative market solutions that can provide businesses with tailored energy efficiency advice, as well as simplifying the energy efficiency investment processes through the creation of one-stop-shop platforms.
I have recently given the British Business Bank a new mission to drive sustainable growth and prosperity across the UK, and to enable the transition to a net zero economy, by supporting access to finance for smaller businesses. Between 2014 and the third quarter of 2020 a total of £160m has been invested into clean technology businesses by equity funds backed by the British Business Bank.