Lee Dillon

The government does not collect or hold this information. Ofcom, as the independent regulator of postal services, has a duty to secure the provision of a financially sustainable and efficient universal postal service. It monitors Royal Mail’s provision of the universal service and has powers to investigate and take enforcement action if Royal Mail fails to achieve its performance targets as appropriate, taking account of all relevant factors.

Ofcom, as the independent regulator of postal services, is responsible for monitoring Royal Mail’s performance and ensuring that Royal Mail complies with its legal obligations.  Ofcom takes compliance with its regulatory targets seriously and this involves conducting thorough investigations where failures have been identified.

In October, Ofcom fined Royal Mail £21 million for failing to meet its quality-of-service targets and has told Royal Mail it must urgently publish and deliver a credible plan that delivers major and continuous improvement.

The Government launched a review in the Trade Strategy, into the UK’s approach to responsible business conduct, focused on tackling human rights and labour abuses and environmental harms in global supply chains.

The review is still progressing and is considering the effectiveness of the UK’s current regime and standards, and the merits of alternative measures to support responsible business practices, including mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence. We shall update the House when the review is complete.

The Government is fully committed to implementing the Grenfell Inquiry recommendation that principal contractors working on higher-risk buildings should be licenced through a scheme managed by the Building Safety Regulator. We have accepted this recommendation as an important step in enhancing building safety standards.

We continue to engage with stakeholders as to whether a wider licencing scheme would improve standards of consumer protection. This work is progressing alongside our broader initiatives to enhance competency across the construction sector through the Industry Competence Committee, ensuring a comprehensive approach to raising standards throughout the industry.

The Government is fully committed to implementing the Grenfell Inquiry recommendation that principal contractors working on higher-risk buildings should be licenced through a scheme managed by the Building Safety Regulator. We have accepted this recommendation as an important step in enhancing building safety standards.

We continue to engage with stakeholders as to whether a wider licencing scheme would improve standards of consumer protection. This work is progressing alongside our broader initiatives to enhance competency across the construction sector through the Industry Competence Committee, ensuring a comprehensive approach to raising standards throughout the industry.

The insolvency framework is designed to ensure that those affected by any business failure receive as much of their money back as possible, and with as much fairness as possible. There are no plans to provide additional support to individuals affected by the failure of construction businesses.

The Small Business Plan outlines how we will make thriving small businesses a reality across the UK, whether across towns or countryside. Rural areas offer significant growth potential and fulfilling the needs of people and businesses in rural areas is at the heart of our policymaking.

The Plan was developed through engagement with a large number of key stakeholders and trade associations including roundtables with farms and community-based businesses.

The Government has made a commitment that all policy decision-making should be rural proofed, ensuring that all intended outcomes are deliverable in rural areas and include community-owned businesses.

The Department’s flagship plan for Small and Medium Sized Business is giving rural businesses the tools they need to grow and diversify. Our plan will help businesses to tackle late payments, improve access to finance, and streamline licensing. Targeted funding and Growth Hubs will provide tailored advice alongside sector-specific schemes to encourage innovation and local investment. DBT also provides advice and support for businesses via business.gov.uk, including access to the Business Academy and international market teams. These measures help rural businesses to thrive, create jobs, and strengthen local economies.

My department has a dedicated exports promotion programme for the film and high-end TV industry, which includes providing export support for businesses at major international film festivals and markets. We work with the UK film and TV sectors to remove market access barriers to enable businesses to increase their exports and use free trade agreements to grow exports.

In September 2024 we announced a package of measures to help ensure small businesses are paid promptly by the large businesses they supply.

This included launching a new Fair Payment Code and a commitment to including payment performance information in large companies’ annual reports.

In the spring we will launch a public consultation on further measures to address late payments, including new powers for the Small Business Commissioner to tackle large businesses who pay late.

Businesses based in Newbury can take advantage of the range of products that UK Export Finance provides to facilitate exporting, including loan guarantee and insurance facilities.

In 2023/24 alone, UKEF provided £8.8 billion support to help UK businesses sell their goods and services overseas.

Businesses in Newbury and across the country may also want to consider other support for exporting that is available from the Department for Business and Trade, such as our network of International Trade Advisers and guidance on GREAT.GOV.UK.

To obtain further information about the range of support available, businesses in Newbury can reach out to their local Export Finance Manager, for whom contact details are available at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/find-an-export-finance-manager.

The Government has committed to additional grant funding of £1.5bn which will be directed towards upgrading low-income households, benefiting those in fuel poverty. Details of this will be included within the Government’s ambitious Warm Homes Plan.

The Government is also developing a new fuel poverty strategy for England to ensure that more households can afford to heat their home at a reasonable cost, slash fuel poverty and improve their quality of life. This will include funding energy efficiency upgrades and low-carbon heating for social housing residents, lower income households, and renters, via the Warm Homes: Social Housing Fund and Warm Homes: Local Grant schemes.

We remain committed to delivering net zero and are clear this will require us to decarbonise virtually all heat in buildings. The previous Government planned to end the installation of new and replacement oil, LPG and coal heating systems in homes in England from 2035. This government has been clear on several occasions that we will not force anyone to rip out a working boiler, instead we will make use of all available data to inform future decisions on heat decarbonisation.

We will soon publish our Warm Homes Plan which represents the biggest ever public investment in home upgrades. This will include support for clean heating technologies like heat pumps and heat networks.

The sector is nascent but is expected to grow significantly; the global hydrogen market could exceed $1 trillion by 2050, with the UK well positioned to capture a substantial share.

We intend to publish a revised Hydrogen Strategy which will include the latest hydrogen jobs estimates and set out plans to optimise the job creation and economic benefits delivered by the UK hydrogen economy.

We will continue to engage with stakeholders across the hydrogen value chain; working together with industry and unions to identify actions that support the skills and workforce needs of the UK’s low carbon hydrogen economy.

Electricity price assumptions in the Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) and Reduced Data SAP (RdSAP) are set when each methodology is published and are not updated between versions. This ensures consistency for Energy Performance Certificates and related regulations. Updating assumptions mid-cycle would require a full methodology review and could alter EPC ratings, affecting compliance and fuel poverty metrics.

The Department is maintaining stability ahead of planned 2026 reforms, when the Home Energy Model will replace SAP and EPC metrics will be reviewed. In the meantime, the “estimated yearly energy costs” shown on Energy Performance Certificates are periodically updated using the latest fuel price data, ensuring that indicative running cost information remains as current as possible for households.

Great British Energy (GBE) and the UK government will turbocharge support for local and community energy projects across the UK.

In 2025/26, Great British Energy have allocated £5 million to the Great British Energy Community Fund (GBECF), a grant scheme designed to help community groups develop local clean power projects.

£6.8 million has been allocated to maintain Local Net Zero Hubs located across England, which provide free expertise and resources to help local authorities deliver clear energy projects.

GBE is in the process of developing its longer-term funding offer and strategic support for working with Local Government and Community Energy Groups, as well as working with devolved governments. This includes commercial, technical and project planning assistance to increase capability and capacity to build a pipeline of successful projects in local areas.

As set out in their Strategic Plan, published on 4 December 2025, GBE aims to support over 1,000 local and community projects by 2030.

Government expects the transition to clean heat will involve installing a heat pump for most oil-heated homes as they are cost-effective, proven technologies and several government schemes support their installation. We will share more details in the Warm Homes Plan soon.

The Boiler Upgrade Scheme has grants available for air source and ground source heat pumps of £7,500. There is also a 0% rate of VAT on heat pump installations until March 2027. Low income and fuel poor homes may be able to access support through the Warm Homes: Local Grant.

We are undertaking research on the costs of different approaches to decarbonising the most complex housing archetypes and expect to receive results early next year.

The Government launched a consultation on 18 November to explore alternative clean heating solutions that may play a role in some homes, including renewable liquid fuels (RLFs) such as hydrotreated vegetable oil. The consultation will run for 12 weeks.

The Government will review evidence from this consultation to help inform any future decision on whether or not to support the use of RLFs in heating.

The reductions in electricity prices announced at the Budget, particularly the reduction in the Renewables Obligation, are a significant step forward in our ambition to reduce electricity bills. As stated, we intend to set out more detail in our Warm Homes Plan as to how we can further target the savings announced in this Budget at electricity bills, including those from ending the ECO scheme.

The Budget also delivers on the major principle that we should fund more of the investment we need in our energy system through public expenditure rather than levies, moving £7bn into public expenditure. We are delivering the biggest public investment in home energy efficiency ever, increasing the settlement we received at the Spending Review.

We will subject new levies to enhanced scrutiny and ensure they represent value for money and do not impose unnecessary costs on households and businesses.

Thanks to decisions in Government's Autumn Budget, the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) will deliver an average £150 of costs off household energy bills from April 2026. As a result of this action, people in Newbury can expect to make a significant saving on their bills.

In addition, in 2024-2025, 2,854 households (6.5%) in Newbury benefited from the Warm Home Discount - a £150 discount on their energy bill. This winter, we are expanding this discount so that around 6 million low-income households will receive this support, including an approximate additional 350,000 households in the South East region.

Beyond these measures, this Government is taking back control of our energy to prevent the British people from being left exposed to price shocks caused by our dependence on fossil fuel markets. We are delivering the biggest investment in clean, low-cost energy in British history, so we can build a system that protects billpayers permanently.

In any instance where insulation is installed improperly under a government-backed scheme, consumers are entitled to remediation by their installer or, failing that, the insurance-backed guarantee. Where the measure has not been installed correctly, homeowners should contact their installer or use the TrustMark dispute resolution process to seek redress (https://www.trustmark.org.uk/homeowner/information-guidance/if-things-go-wrong).

As part of the Warm Homes Plan, Government is reviewing the entire landscape - from how installers work in people’s homes to where homeowners turn for rapid action and enforcement if things go wrong. We are planning to consult on proposals for retrofit system reform early next year.

The Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS) stipulates that all heat pumps operating at flow temperatures above 35°C are required to be tested and meet a Seasonal Coefficient of Performance (SCOP) of 2.8. Therefore, MCS holds heat pumps operating between 65 and 75°C to the same standards as other heat pumps.

DESNZ consulted in December 2024 on “Raising product standards for space heating” which would introduce a definition and standards for high temperature heat pumps. This would be defined as any heat pump operating at 65°C. A Government Response will be issued in due course.

The current product standards regulations do not set distinct performance thresholds for high temperature heat pumps. The ecodesign heat pump efficiency standard applies to all heat pumps other than low temperature models. However, the government consulted in December 2024 on proposals for ‘raising product standards for space heating’. These included introducing a definition and standards for high temperature heat pumps. Under the proposals, this would be defined as any heat pump operating at 65°C flow temperature. The government will publish a response to that consultation in due course.

We have committed £13.2bn in the Warm Homes Plan up to 2030, in line with our Manifesto commitment. This will support investment in low carbon heating, solar, batteries and insulation to up to 5 million homes across England.

Within Wave 3 of the Warm Homes: Social Housing Fund, which launched earlier this year, in addition to targeted off-grid, low-carbon heating grant funding there is a new optional low-carbon heating funding incentive for homes on the gas grid.

Up to 10% of on-grid homes in an application can access a £20,000 grant per home to install low-carbon heating measures.

To ensure there is sufficient grid capacity to meet net zero, the government is delivering a major expansion of electricity networks. We are working with Ofgem and the National Energy System Operator to speed up delivery of new network infrastructure through reforms to planning, support for communities and strategic network design.

We are also working with Ofgem to ensure its price control framework supports proactive investment in the local distribution network. This will be informed by Regional Energy Strategic Plans, which will consider local requirements including ensuring timely reinforcement of networks for new housing developments.

The Government recognises that we need to support households in constituencies like Newbury and across the UK who struggling with bills whilst we transition to clean power by 2030. This is why we delivered the Warm Home Discount to around 3 million eligible low-income households last winter. On 19 June we announced that we are expanding the Warm Home Discount to around an additional 2.7 million households. This means that from next winter, around 6 million low-income households will receive the £150 support to help with their energy bill costs.

The Government has been clear with suppliers that they should do all that they can to support their customers – including vulnerable consumers – who may be struggling with their bills. I would urge any consumers who are struggling to pay their bills to speak to their supplier, local authority, or Citizens Advice who may be able to provide help and support. Your constituents in Newbury can also visit the GOV.UK website, where extra cost-of-living support can be found: www.gov.uk/cost-of-living.

The Government is continuing to work with Ofgem and energy suppliers to ensure energy bills remain fair and affordable while we transition to clean power by 2030.

The Department is not aware of any evidence that the proximity of army barracks to a premises impacts energy suppliers’ ability to install smart meters.

The Department is not aware of any evidence that the proximity of army barracks to a premises impacts energy suppliers’ ability to install smart meters.

The Government believes that our mission to deliver clean power by 2030 is the best way to break our dependence on global fossil fuel markets and protect billpayers permanently. 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. This, combined with our Warm Homes Plan to upgrade millions of homes to make them warmer and cheaper to run is how we will drive down energy bills and make cold homes a thing of the past.

We are delivering the Warm Home Discount to around 3 million eligible low-income households this winter. On 25 February, we published a consultation on the expansion of the Warm Home Discount, giving more eligible households £150 off their energy bills. These proposals would bring around 2.7 million households into the scheme – pushing the total number of households that would receive the discount next winter up to around 6 million. The Government has extended the Household Support Fund in England until 31 March 2026 with an extra £742 million in support, with additional funding for the Devolved Governments. In addition, I have also worked with energy suppliers to agree a £500 million Winter Commitment to help customers struggling with bills this winter.

Over a million pensioners will continue to receive the Winter Fuel Payment and through our commitment to protect the triple lock, those on the full new State Pension will receive a boost of over £400 – twice the average winter fuel payment. We continue to urge everyone who might be eligible for pension credit to claim so that they can also continue to receive the Winter Fuel Payment.

The Department’s Warm Home Discount (WHD) provides a £150 rebate off winter energy bills for eligible low-income households. On 25 February, we published a consultation on the expansion of the Warm Home Discount, giving more eligible households £150 off their energy bills. These proposals would bring around 2.7 million households into the scheme – pushing the total number of households that would receive the discount next winter up to around 6 million. I have also worked with energy suppliers to agree a £500 million Winter Commitment to help customers struggling with bills this winter. I have been clear with suppliers that they should do all that they can to support their customers – including vulnerable consumers – who may be struggling with their bills.

The Government response to the road fuels consultation published on 30 October 2024 confirmed that Government will implement the recommendations made by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to:

• Set up a statutory open data scheme for fuel prices, called Fuel Finder.
• Provide the CMA with information gathering powers – which commenced on 1 January 2025 - so it can monitor and scrutinise fuel prices.

Fuel Finder will increase price transparency and help drivers easily compare prices and find the best deals. This will increase pressure on fuel retailers to compete strongly to attract customers. Subject to legislation and parliamentary timings, we aim to launch Fuel Finder by the end of 2025.

The Government response to the road fuels consultation published on 30 October 2024 confirmed that Government will implement the recommendations made by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to:

• Set up a statutory open data scheme for fuel prices, called Fuel Finder.
• Provide the CMA with information gathering powers – which commenced on 1 January 2025 - so it can monitor and scrutinise fuel prices.

Fuel Finder will increase price transparency and help drivers easily compare prices and find the best deals. This will increase pressure on fuel retailers to compete strongly to attract customers. Subject to legislation and parliamentary timings, we aim to launch Fuel Finder by the end of 2025.

The mechanism for protecting consumers from disproportionate energy prices is the Price Cap, which ensures default tariffs are priced efficiently. This protects households who are on their supplier’s default tariff. The level of the price cap is the same for both smart and non-smart meter default tariffs.

My Rt. Hon. Friend the Secretary of State and I have had regular discussions with suppliers on a range of issues, including the Voluntary Debt Commitment. Following these discussions, the Government and industry have worked together to deliver a £500m Winter Support Commitment for customers, and we applaud suppliers stepping up on this matter.