Helen Maguire

Following the conclusion of the first phase of the Spending Review on 30 October 2024, the Boiler Upgrade Scheme has a committed budget of £295 million for this financial year (2025/26).

The Boiler Upgrade Scheme is a critical element of the Government’s Warm Homes Plan. A decision on funding for 2026/27 onwards will be confirmed as part of the second phase of the multi-year Spending Review, which will conclude in June this year.

Details of Ministers’ and Permanent Secretaries’ meetings with external individuals and organisations are published quarterly in arrears on GOV.UK.

The government is working closely with Ofgem, National Energy System Operator (NESO) and network companies to reform the connections process and enable advanced projects, that align with our strategic needs, to connect faster. Ofgem is currently considering connection reform proposals from NESO, which include requirements for projects to demonstrate sufficient progress to obtain, and retain, a connection agreement.

We don't consider the increase in capacity planned for Scotland between 2030 and 2035 to have an impact on our ability to reach our net zero targets.

The 2035 capacity number for Scotland is based on the National Energy System Operator’s Future Energy Scenarios, which present credible pathways to decarbonise our energy system as we strive towards the 2050 target.

The latest published Warm Home Discount statistics are for 2023/4 and use the constituency boundaries operating prior to the 2024 General Election. Most (87%) of the residential premises in Epsom and Ewell constituency come from Epsom and Ewell constituency under the previous boundaries, in which 2,369 households received the Warm Home Discount rebate in 2023-24. The statistics only cover receipt of the Warm Home Discount and not eligibility.

The Government believes the only way to protect consumers permanently is to speed up the transition towards homegrown clean energy. The creation of Great British Energy will help us to harness clean energy and have less reliance on volatile international energy markets and help in our commitment to make Britain a clean energy superpower by 2030.

We continue to monitor energy prices and the price cap and are working to ensure bills are affordable for consumers in the long-term, including through our work with Ofgem to reform standing charges, and through our Warm Homes Plan which will upgrade millions of homes to make them warmer and cheaper to run.

The Government's review of the 2021 fuel poverty strategy reveals progress towards the statutory target has stalled. A new strategy is required, with a consultation open until 4 April.

The UK has the oldest housing stock in Europe and the government recognises that there is no “one-size-fits-all" approach to tackle the UK’s diverse building stock, and the need to ensure more historic buildings are able to achieve Net Zero. The Department commissioned research into complex to decarbonise homes and is currently considering the findings available at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/defining-and-identifying-complex-to-decarbonise-homes.

Our Warm Homes Plan will help people find ways to save money on energy bills and transform our ageing building stock. We have committed £3.4 billion over the next 3 years towards heat decarbonisation and household energy efficiency. Further details will be set out in due course.

This government is committed to improving mental health support for all children and young people. This is critical to breaking down barriers to opportunity, and helping pupils to achieve and thrive in education. That is why the department has committed to expanding Mental Health Support Teams (MHSTs), so every young person has access to early support to address problems before they escalate. As of April 2024, NHS-funded MHSTs covered 44% of pupils in schools and learners in further education in England, and are expected to cover at least 50% by the end of March 2025.

NHS England has recognised that social prescribing is an early intervention approach that can work particularly well for people with low level mental health needs. It has set out a framework for social prescribing link workers operating within or alongside primary care networks. The University of Manchester’s article highlights findings of a pilot on how social prescribing link workers can work effectively to support young people in colleges.

It is for schools and colleges to choose the most appropriate support for their students based on their understanding of needs, making links to primary care services in their area and the support they provide to children and young people. We will look at the lessons of the pilot and evidence on social prescribing in exploring future practical resources for schools and colleges, helping them to provide effective early support.

Regarding Young Futures Hubs, the staffing of each hub will be co-designed with local stakeholders to meet the needs of their local community and the three overriding objectives of improving opportunities, improving mental health and wellbeing, and reducing crime. Such designs may include a variety of different staffing arrangements including social prescribers and other related professionals.

The government has established an independent Curriculum and Assessment Review, covering ages 5 to 18, chaired by Professor Becky Francis CBE. The Review is looking at all curriculum subjects, including mathematics. It is committed to ensuring the curriculum sufficiently prepares children and young people for future life and work, building the knowledge, skills and attributes to thrive.

The Review Group has now published an interim report, which sets out its findings and confirms the key areas for further work. The report can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/curriculum-and-assessment-review-interim-report. The report highlights the need for the curriculum to “respond to social and technological change”. The Review Group’s next steps include considering how best to equip young people with “the essential knowledge and skills which will enable them to adapt and thrive in a rapidly changing and artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled world”.

The government will respond to the final recommendations in autumn.

The government is committed to giving children the best start in life and has set the ambition through the government’s Plan for Change for a record proportion of children starting school ready to learn in the classroom. The department will measure our progress through 75% of children at the end of reception reaching a good level of development in the early years foundation stage by 2028. A high quality and sufficient workforce is fundamental to this.

The department is supporting early years providers to attract talented staff by creating conditions for improved recruitment. Our national recruitment campaign is encouraging the public to ‘Do something Big’ and start a career working with small children. A dedicated campaign website is also helping people find out more about gaining qualifications and search existing job vacancies. We are also piloting whether £1,000 financial incentives may boost recruitment and running Skills Bootcamps for early years which can lead to accelerated apprenticeships.

The department recently announced the experience-based route, which enables early years providers to maximise the potential of staff who have the right skills and experience but do not hold an approved qualification. We have also taken steps to increase the graduate workforce via the early years teacher degree apprenticeship, providing a new undergraduate route to gaining early years teacher status.

All children and young people should have every opportunity to succeed, no matter who they are or where they are from. However, this government knows that too many children and young people face barriers to learning. This is not acceptable, which is why the Opportunity Mission will break the unfair link between background and success, helping all children achieve and thrive.

High and rising standards across education are at the heart of this mission and the key to unlocking stronger outcomes and a better future for children and young people. The department aims to deliver these improvements through excellent teaching and leadership, a high quality curriculum and a system that removes barriers to learning, all of which will be underpinned by strong and clear accountability.

The quality of teaching is the single most important in-school factor in improving outcomes for children, especially for those from disadvantaged backgrounds. This is why the department is committed to recruiting 6,500 new expert teachers.

The department has also launched an independent Curriculum and Assessment Review, which is closely examining the key challenges to attainment for young people and the barriers that hold children back from the opportunities and life chances they deserve.

To strengthen school improvement, the new regional improvement for standards and excellence (RISE) teams will provide both mandatory targeted intervention for schools identified by Ofsted as needing to improve and a universal service, acting as a catalyst for a self-improving system for all schools.

Recognising the importance of supporting children’s attendance and attainment, the government is committed to delivering on its pledge to provide free breakfast clubs in every state funded school with primary-aged children.

The pupil premium grant also provides funding to improve educational outcomes for disadvantaged pupils in state-funded schools in England. Pupil premium funding will rise to over £3 billion in 2025/26, an increase of almost 5% from 2024/25.

The first duty of the government is to keep the country safe and this government is committed to responding to foreign interference, including those actions which amount to transnational repression. The government takes protection of individuals' rights, freedoms and safety very seriously, and any attempt by any foreign state to intimidate, harass or harm individuals in the UK will not be tolerated. Anyone who thinks they might be a victim should report incidents or suspicious activity to the Police via 101, a local police station or 999 in emergencies. As autonomous institutions, the department also expects universities to have robust processes in place to prevent and tackle incidents of harassment and abuse on campuses.

The department is taking specific steps to ensure our world-leading universities remain free from foreign interference. This includes the implementation of the new complaints scheme in the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023, which will offer a focussed route for concerns, including relating to foreign interference in academic freedom and free speech, to be escalated. The government is also working at pace on the implementation of the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme, which will require registration of foreign directed activity involving specific governments and entities where it is necessary to protect the safety or interests of the UK. The department expects the scheme to commence summer this year.

The department continues to work closely with the sector to increase their understanding of the risks and their ability to respond. We are conducting an internal review, informed by engagement with the regulator, sector, academics impacted by foreign interference, as well as international partners, to assess existing approaches to managing the risk of foreign interference and what more support they might need.

The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill will strengthen multi-agency working between local authorities, health, police and education and childcare settings, and those settings will be designated in regulations. The department expects safeguarding partners to work together with relevant agencies to promote the welfare of children in their local area regardless of what type of education or training establishment they are attending.

The department is committed to supporting the aspiration of every person who meets the requirements and wants to go to university, regardless of their background.

The government continues to provide means-tested non-repayable grants to low income full time undergraduate students with children and/or adults who are financially dependent on them. We have announced an increase to maximum dependants’ grants for the 2025/26 academic year by 3.1%, based on forecast inflation using the RPIX inflation index. Students undertaking nursing, midwifery and allied health profession courses also qualify for non-repayable grant support through the NHS Learning Support Fund.

The department is also increasing the maximum maintenance loans for living costs for the 2025/26 academic year by 3.1%, in line with the forecast rate of inflation, to ensure that more support is targeted at students from the lowest income families. Higher rates of loan for living costs are also paid to students eligible for benefits such as lone parents and some disabled students as well as care leavers, who are normally assessed as low income independent students. In addition, care leavers are also entitled to a £2000 statutory bursary, paid via their local authority.

However, the department recognises that there is much more to do to expand access and improve outcomes for disadvantaged students. Too many people across our country do not get the opportunity to succeed. We will act to change this. We are calling for providers to go further and play a stronger role in expanding access and improving outcomes for disadvantaged students, making sure that they are delivering robust and ambitious access and participation plans. By the summer, the department will set out our plan for higher education (HE) reform and the part we expect HE providers to play in this.

Generally, to qualify for higher education (HE) student support and home fee status in England, a person must have settled status and have been ordinarily resident in the UK and Islands (Channel Islands and Isle of Man) for the three years preceding the first day of the first academic year of their course.

This means that under existing student support legislation, holders of a Hong Kong British National (Overseas) visa would qualify for home fee status and financial support once they have acquired settled status in the UK and meet the three-year ordinary residence requirement. This also applies to any dependants who have been granted Hong Kong British National (Overseas) status.

There are no plans to extend HE student support and home fee status to Hong Kong British Nationals (Overseas) or their dependants before they are settled in the UK.

High and rising school standards are at the heart of the government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and give every child the best start in life. The best way of supporting education in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects is to ensure high quality teaching in these subjects, by helping schools to recruit and retain good teachers.

The department has therefore announced an Initial Teacher Training financial incentives package for the 2025/26 academic year worth £233 million, a £37 million increase on the last recruitment cycle. This includes a range of measures, including bursaries worth £29,000 tax-free and scholarships worth £31,000 tax-free, to encourage talented trainees in key STEM subjects such as mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing.

For the 2024/25 and 2025/26 academic years, the department is also offering a targeted retention incentive worth up to £6,000 after tax for mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing teachers in the first five years of their careers who choose to work in disadvantaged schools. This will support recruitment and retention of specialist teachers in these subjects and in the schools and areas that need them most.

In the 2025/26 financial year, the government will continue to fund subject continuing professional development (CPD) and other programmes in mathematics, computing and physics. This includes Maths Hubs, which co-ordinate mathematics CPD, and the ‘Subject knowledge for physics teachers’ programme, an intensive retraining programme for teachers teaching physics out of specialism.

This government’s ambition is that all children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) or in alternative provision receive the right support to succeed in their education and as they move into adult life, breaking down the barriers to opportunity.

Educational psychologists play a crucial role in the support available to children and young people, including those with SEND. Local authorities, as the employers of educational psychology services, are responsible for ensuring that their services are adequately staffed.

However, the department is taking measures to support local authorities by investing in building the pipeline. We are investing over £21 million to train 400 more educational psychologists from 2024. This is in addition to the £10 million currently being invested in the training of over 200 educational psychologists who began their training in September 2023.

To support retention, following graduation, trainees who have had their training funded by the department are required to remain in local authority employment for a minimum period. For trainees beginning their course in September 2024, this requirement has increased to three years.

Tackling child poverty is at the heart of the government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and improve the life chances for every child. For too many children, living in poverty robs them of the opportunity to learn and to prosper.

The Ministerial Child Poverty Taskforce will harness all available levers to drive forward action across government to reduce child poverty. More detail on the approach and priorities for the strategy is set out in the publication ‘Tackling Child Poverty: Developing our Strategy’, which was published on 23 October and is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/tackling-child-poverty-developing-our-strategy.

The Children’s Wellbeing Bill will put children and their wellbeing at the centre of the education and children’s social care systems, and make sure every child has a fulfilling childhood, enabling them to achieve and thrive.

Breakfast clubs will remove barriers to opportunity by ensuring primary school children, no matter their circumstance, are well prepared with a supportive start to the school day. This will help to drive improvements in behaviour, attendance and attainment, and provide families with more affordable childcare choices. This will also support families, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds.

This government sees the early years as central to our mission to give every child the best start in life and in the 2025/26 financial year expect to provide over £8 billion for the early years entitlements, to help even more families access affordable, high quality childcare and early education. We have also announced a new £75 million expansion grant, to be allocated later this year, to support nurseries, childminders and other providers to deliver the 35,000 additional staff and 70,000 places required to meet demand for next September.

High quality early education leads to better outcomes for all children, but is particularly impactful for those from disadvantaged backgrounds and those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), where early identification of needs and support can help them to thrive.

Families of 2 year olds in receipt of certain benefits can access 15 hours of early education and care per week, over 38 weeks a year, and all 3 and 4 year olds are eligible for 15 hours of early education. Further support for disadvantaged children is available through Early Years Pupil Premium. This government will also be delivering the largest ever uplift to the Early Years Pupil Premium, increasing rates by over 45% to up to £570 per eligible child per year. This unprecedented increase is an investment in quality early education for those children who need it most, in the areas that need it most.

To respond to parents’ concerns about the cost of school, as committed in the King’s Speech, we will legislate to limit the number of costly branded items of uniform schools can require, ensuring uniforms make children smarter not families poorer.

In addition to free school meals (FSM), schools continue to receive the pupil premium grant, worth over £2.9 billion in the 2024/25 financial year, to support the educational outcomes of disadvantaged pupils. Also this year, all 153 local authorities in England have continued to deliver the Holiday and Activities Food programme during Easter, summer and Christmas holidays. The programme provides heathy meals, enriching activities and free childcare places to children from low-income families, benefiting their health, wellbeing and learning. It is primarily targeted at children who receive benefits-related FSM, however local authorities also have the flexibility to use some of their funding to target other vulnerable children.

Now that the department has been given its overall budget, we are working through the details of the budget settlement. Departmental budgets for 2025/26 will be confirmed in due course, including the exact funding available to support children, young people and families during the holidays.

It is the department’s ambition that all families have access to high quality, affordable and flexible early education and care, improving the life chances for every child and the work choices for every parent.

From September 2024, eligible working parents of children aged nine months and above can access 15 hours government funded childcare a week over 38 weeks a year. From September 2025, this will be extended so eligible working parents will be able to access 30 hours per week (over 38 weeks a year) for children from the age of 9 months to when they start school.

The government has committed to continue to roll out the expanded childcare entitlements for eligible working parents of children aged from nine months. The department is also growing the provision of wraparound before and after school provision of childcare for primary school children.

In 2024/25, the department expects to provide over £1.7 billion to support local authorities and providers to deliver the childcare expansion. In Surrey, the hourly rate for government funded childcare entitlements for 3 to 4 year olds is £6.77, which is an increase of 5.8%. For two year olds, this figure is £9.61 per hour and for under 2’s, £13.04 per hour.

The government has also committed to upgrading unused space in primary schools to create much needed places in 3,000 nurseries by working in partnership with all parts of the sector and local authorities.

In addition to the entitlements, parents may also be eligible for childcare support through Tax-Free Childcare or Universal Credit. Parents can check what childcare support they are entitled to via the Childcare Choices website.

The department has regular contact with each local authority in England about their sufficiency of childcare and any issues they are facing, including supporting them through its childcare delivery support contract where appropriate.

The government is committed to delivering a modern childcare system from the end of parental leave to the end of primary school, providing every child with a firm foundation which sets them up for life and ensures parents are able to work the jobs and hours they choose to effectively break down the barriers to opportunity for every family.

Surrey had their Ofsted and Care Quality Commission Local Area special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) inspection in September 2023 which identified inconsistent experiences and outcomes for children and young people with SEND. The report, published on 24 November 2023, included four areas for improvement.

The department’s regional team has put in place systems to track outcomes against the areas for improvement found by inspectors and the progress made by children and young people with SEND. Surrey County Council are committed to working closely with the department to improve services.

Surrey County Council entered into a Safety Valve agreement with the department in March 2022 with a view to addressing the effectiveness and financial sustainability of the local high needs system.

My officials and I have regular conversations with Thames Water and other water companies to discuss a range of activities, including the reduction of sewage discharges. I am also meeting with the boards of all water companies, including Thames Water, to set out the government’s expectation of improved performance across all metrics.

Cleaning up England’s rivers, lakes and seas is a priority for the government. The government has taken immediate and substantial action to address the performance of water companies who are not delivering for the environment or their customers.

That is why we are placing water companies under special measures through the Water (Special Measures) Act. This will drive meaningful improvements in the performance and culture of the water industry as a first important step in enabling wider, transformative change across the water sector.

Furthermore, as part of Ofwat’s Price Review 2024 settlement, Thames Water will undertake a significant investment programme to improve the environment over the 2025-30 period. These investments include: £784 million to reduce the use of storm overflows and £1.2 billion to prevent nutrient pollution. Ofwat expects the reduction of the use of storm overflows by at least 29% by 2029-30, down to an average of 14.2 spills per overflow.

The Government and Ofwat – the financial regulator for the water sector – are carefully monitoring the situation, and Ofwat is working closely with the company to strengthen their long-term financial resilience within the context of its license and broader statutory obligations.

Fundamentally it is for the company to solve their issues of financial resilience. It is not for the Government to tell a private company how to manage their finances.

It would be inappropriate to comment on ongoing legal proceedings. We prepare for a range of scenarios across our regulated industries – including water – like any responsible Government would.

Packaging Extended Producer Responsibility (pEPR) obligates brands and packaging producers to pay the costs of managing household packaging waste. In most cases, this will not be individual pubs but the business supplying the pub with packaged goods. It is up to individual producers whether to pass these costs on to their customers. The pEPR fees are intended to incentivise producers to use less packaging and to ensure the packaging they do use is environmentally sustainable. For example, where producers use reusable packaging, they will only pay a pEPR fee the first time it is used. Reuse will therefore provide a significant decrease in fees and customers, such as pubs, will see a decrease in waste management costs.

Industry is already making progress in this area, the British Beer and Pub Association and ABInbev recently hosted a well-attended glass bottle reuse workshop where UK glass reuse trials were showcased. This included a Greene King trial which started with 25 pubs last year and which will soon be expanded to several hundred pubs, and the multi-retailer glass reuse trial that is due to start in Newport later this year.