Warm Home Discount

Johanna Baxter Excerpts

Thursday 19th June 2025 Commons Chamber

[Miatta Fahnbulleh]

I thank the hon. Member for a really good question. Park homes are currently supported through industry initiatives and the warm home discount. We will continue to make sure that park homes are supported. There is obviously work that we need to do, because we are conscious that there are some customers who are not receiving the discount, and we are working with industry to resolve that.

[Johanna Baxter (Paisley and Renfrewshire South) (Lab)]

I warmly welcome my hon. Friend’s statement today on the expansion of the warm home discount. It will mean that 240,000 people across Scotland, including many thousands in Paisley and Renfrewshire South, will receive £150 directly off their energy bills from this UK Government. Will my hon. Friend say a little more about the work being done to accelerate proposals to introduce a debt relief scheme, which would target unsustainable debt built up during the energy crisis?

[Miatta Fahnbulleh]

My hon. Friend is right to mention debt relief and the huge burden of debt that we have seen. Over the course of the energy crisis, we saw debt increase to more than £3 billion. For many of those households in debt, there is no route to paying it off. We have been working with Ofgem to put in place a debt relief scheme, using a combination of write-offs of debt and repayment plans, so that we can ensure that more people are lifted out of energy debt and are in a position to afford their energy.