Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
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 ensure that support is available for households that (a) are not on low incomes and (b) do not have access to capital upfront to retrofit their homes.
Answered by Miatta Fahnbulleh - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
As part of the Warm Homes Plan, the Government has committed an initial £3.4 billion over the next 3 years towards heat decarbonisation and household energy efficiency, with £1 billion of this allocated to next year. Additional funding will be considered in Phase 2 of the Spending Review, as the Warm Homes Plan is further developed.
In addition, the Government is exploring the role of incentives and private finance for households to support homeowners with the upfront costs of energy efficiency improvements and low carbon heating. This includes the Green Home Finance Accelerator Programme which has made £20 million available to support in developing green finance products.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps his Department is taking to enable community energy schemes to sell their power to local residents.
Answered by Michael Shanks - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Community energy will play an essential role in meeting our mission for clean power by 2030.
Great British Energy will provide support to deliver the Local Power Plan, putting communities at the heart of restructuring our energy economy. Through partnering with and providing funding and support to Community Energy Groups, the Local Power Plan will roll out small and medium‑scale renewable energy projects, using established technologies to develop up to 8GW of cheaper, cleaner power. This will include shared ownership projects in partnership with private developers.
Some suppliers already offer local tariffs, and other products and services are available that provide community benefits. Small-scale generation sites can benefit from an exemption, which means that they do not require a licence from Ofgem to generate electricity or to supply to local customers. Ofgem has further flexibility to award supply licences to generation sites that are above the exemptions threshold when they are restricted to specified local area.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what estimate she has made of how many households have (a) applied to and (b) had insulation installed through the Great British Insulation Scheme.
Answered by Amanda Solloway
Through the GOV.UK self-referral service, there have been over 76,000 referrals for the Great British Insulation Scheme (GBIS) up to 7 January 2024. The Department does not hold data on how many customers have applied for the scheme through other routes.
Information on the number of insulation measures installed through GBIS can be found in the latest GBIS Statistical Release.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the (a) capacity of energy companies to respond to applications through the Great British Insulation Scheme and (b) target times for such applications to be processed.
Answered by Amanda Solloway
As part of the service levels agreed with the Department, obligated energy suppliers are expected to respond to households referred for the Great British Insulation Scheme via the Government website within 10 working days.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
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 potential impact of the rise in the Energy Price Guarantee in April 2023 on families.
Answered by Amanda Solloway
The Energy Price Guarantee will continue to ensure all households pay less for their energy bills than they would have otherwise with no Government intervention.
The Government has also announced further support worth £26 billion in 2023-24, to help the most vulnerable households.