Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Wentworth and Dearne)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to the Answer of 20 June 2018 to Question 152643, on fire prevention: insulation, if he will place in the Library the instructions used to commission the Manufacturing Technology Centre to look at the removal and replacement processes for cladding systems.
Answered by Lord Harrington of Watford
As set out in the answer I gave to the hon. Member on 20 June 2018 to Question 152643, this proposal was initiated following a proposal to InnovateUK, BEIS and the Department for Communities and Local Government, who agreed to this. No commissioning instructions were developed, as this work was supported as a matter of urgency.
Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Wentworth and Dearne)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to the Answer of 20 June 2018 to Question 152643, on fire prevention: insulation, which Department funds the exploratory research and development.
Answered by Lord Harrington of Watford
Funding for this project was provided by InnovateUK, an Executive Non-Departmental Public Body of the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy.
Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Wentworth and Dearne)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to the Answer of 20 June 2018 to Question 152643, on Fire Prevention: Insulation, what the timetable is for the exploratory research and development to be completed.
Answered by Lord Harrington of Watford
The exploratory research and development project has been completed. The findings are currently being reviewed, and will be made available in due course.
Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Wentworth and Dearne)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will place the project specification used to commission the Manufacturing Technology Centre to look at the removal and replacement processes for cladding systems in the Library.
Answered by Lord Harrington of Watford
This project was initiated following a proposal from the Manufacturing Technology Centre to InnovateUK. Due to the urgency of the work, no formal project specification was developed. Instead, InnovateUK, BEIS and the Department for Communities and Local Government agreed this exploratory research and development should be undertaken.
Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Wentworth and Dearne)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the long-term potential for hydrogen to lower the emissions required for the heating of residential properties.
Answered by Claire Perry
The Department is currently undertaking work to strengthen and assess the evidence on the range of potential approaches to decarbonising heat, including on the use of hydrogen. There are a number of technologies with the potential to make a major contribution to decarbonisation. As well as hydrogen, these include, heat pumps, hybrid gas and electric heating systems and district heating networks. I plan to publish a report on the Department’s review of the evidence later this year.
The Department has also commissioned the Hy4Heat project which aims to provide essential technical evidence on the use of hydrogen for heat in buildings. This will include developing and testing hydrogen boilers. The project has a total budget of £25m and will run until 2021.
Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Wentworth and Dearne)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, when he plans to issue a call for evidence on the adequacy of trigger points for Energy Performance Certificates.
Answered by Claire Perry
The Clean Growth Strategy, published in October 2017, set out the Government’s intention to publish a Call for Evidence on extending Energy Performance Certificates to other trigger points and seeking wider views on how they could be further improved in light of new sources of data and capabilities. Preparations to launch this Call for Evidence are underway and we will publish this shortly.
Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Wentworth and Dearne)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether he has made an estimate of the cost to the public purse of ensuring that all homes are rated at least energy performance certificate band C by 2035; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Claire Perry
The Clean Growth Strategy set out the Government’s aspiration that as many homes as possible will be upgraded to an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) band C by 2035, where practical, cost-effective and affordable. The total investment required depends on a number of factors, including the mix of technologies used to achieve improvements, how they are financed, and how the costs of technologies change over time.
The Government is focussed on mobilising investment to help meet this aspiration and the other goals set out in the Clean Growth Strategy, and reducing the cost of investment required by encouraging innovation.
Alongside the Clean Growth Strategy, the government set up the Green Finance Taskforce, which brought together senior leaders from the financial sector. One of their objectives was to help deliver the investment needed to meet the ambitions and commitments set out in our Clean Growth Strategy whilst consolidating the UK’s leadership in financing international clean investment. The Taskforce published their recommendations in March this year. The government is currently considering these recommendations and will respond in due course.
The Government also launched two new £10 million innovation programmes to develop new and improved energy efficiency and heating technologies to help reduce the cost of improving homes. The funds closed to applicants on 2 January, and we are currently reviewing bids.
Further, the Government published a Call for Evidence on building a market for energy efficiency including additional measures to reduce the cost of investment required to improve homes. This Call for Evidence closed on 9 January 2018. Following an evaluation of the responses, we will publish an action plan on additional market based measures later in 2018.
Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Wentworth and Dearne)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he is taking to ensure that as many as possible (a) new and (b) existing homes reach energy performance certificate band C by 2035.
Answered by Claire Perry
The Clean Growth Strategy outlined a number of policies and proposals to help us make progress against Government’s aspiration that as many homes as possible will be upgraded to an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) Band C by 2035, where practical, cost-effective and affordable. This included:
Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Wentworth and Dearne)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the long-term trajectory for energy performance standards across the private rented sector.
Answered by Claire Perry
As we set out in the Clean Growth Strategy, the Government will look at options for a long term trajectory for the sector, with the aim of as many private rented homes as possible being upgraded to EPC Band C by 2030, where practical, cost-effective and affordable. The Department is currently considering options prior to launching a consultation later this year.
Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Wentworth and Dearne)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of energy performance standards in the social housing sector.
Answered by Claire Perry
The Clean Growth Strategy set out the Government’s intention to consult on options for setting a trajectory for privately rented homes to be upgraded to Energy Performance Certificate Band C by 2030, and confirmed that we will look at how social housing can meet similar standards to the same timetable. The Strategy noted that, when looking at this, we will need to take account of the findings of the independent public inquiry into the fire at Grenfell Tower and the Government’s separate work looking at wider social housing policy issues.
The Regulator of Social Housing Homes Standard sets out the required outcomes registered providers are expected to meet in terms of Decent Homes. A home must meet a number of criteria to be regarded as a Decent Home, including that it has effective heating and insulation. According to the 2016/17 English Housing Survey (EHS), 87% (3.6 million homes) of social housing meets the Decent Homes Standard, up from 71% (2.8 million) in 2006. However, social housing still has significant potential to benefit from energy efficiency improvements to the advantage of tenants, their communities, and their landlords.