Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, pursuant to the Answer of 17 June 2025 to Question 59046 on Insulation: Housing, what recent discussions he has had with surveyors on spray foam insulation.
Answered by Miatta Fahnbulleh - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Details of Ministers' and Permanent Secretaries' meetings with external individuals and organisations are published quarterly in arrears on GOV.UK.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, pursuant to the Answer of 17 June 2025 to Question 59046 on Insulation: Housing, whether he has had recent discussions with mortgage brokers on the potential impact of spray foam installation on their ability to issue a mortgage.
Answered by Miatta Fahnbulleh - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Details of Ministers' and Permanent Secretaries' meetings with external individuals and organisations are published quarterly in arrears on GOV.UK.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what recent meetings he has had with people who have had spray foam installation in their homes in Devon.
Answered by Miatta Fahnbulleh - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Details of Ministers' and Permanent Secretaries' meetings with external individuals and organisations are published quarterly in arrears on GOV.UK.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, pursuant to the Answer of 11 June 2025 to Question 57479 on Energy: Standing Charge and with reference to the OFGEM consultation entitled Introducing a zero standing charge energy price cap variant, what steps his Department is taking in response to this consultation.
Answered by Miatta Fahnbulleh - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
It is for Ofgem to respond to its consultation on introducing a zero standing charge energy price cap variant.
As part of their update on standing charges, Ofgem announced it will be undertaking a broad review of system costs considering how costs are allocated and recovered across domestic and non-domestic consumers. Ofgem's update can be found here - Standing charges: update on our review | Ofgem.
The Government continues to work constructively with the regulator on the issue of standing charges.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, pursuant to the Answer of 21 May 2025 to Question 52067 on Power Failures, whether the contingency plans include protection from cyber attacks.
Answered by Michael Shanks - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government takes the security of Great Britain’s energy infrastructure extremely seriously and works closely with industry to continually improve and strengthen cyber security resilience. The Cyber Security and Resilience Bill being introduced this summer will further strengthen cyber security standards for all sectors, including energy. Additionally, industry have well-developed cyber security plans to minimise the risk of disruption and to respond to any emerging issue.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, pursuant to the Answer of 14 February 2025 to Question 29262 on Insulation: Housing, if he will offer support for homes with faulty spray foam installed.
Answered by Miatta Fahnbulleh - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
There is no government financial assistance available to have insulation removed. Any measures fitted under government schemes must be fitted to the highest standards with issues promptly and properly rectified. 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 at no cost to the consumer.
Installations of any insulation under current Government schemes must be installed in accordance with the PAS 2030 and PAS 2035 standards. The TrustMark website contains further guidance on how consumers can complain if things go wrong and the dispute resolution process: https://www.trustmark.org.uk/homeowners/if-things-go-wrong.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, pursuant to the Answer of 14 February 2025 to Question 29262 on Insulation: Housing, if he will publish data on the number of homes using the warm homes grant to date.
Answered by Miatta Fahnbulleh - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Department publishes Household Energy Efficiency Statistics. The detailed annual reports provide breakdowns of measures installed under various government support schemes. These date back to 2015 and are available at GOV.UK (https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/household-energy-efficiency-national-statistics).
Warm Homes: Local Grant and Warm Homes: Social Housing Fund schemes began in April 2025. Statistics on the delivery of these schemes will be published in due course.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, pursuant to the Answer of 14 February 2025 to Question 29262 on Insulation: Housing, if he will take legislative steps to ensure access to mortgage facilities for people purchasing homes with spray foam insulation.
Answered by Miatta Fahnbulleh - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The insulation, lending, and surveying communities published protocols in March 2023 to support surveyors to assess spray foam, provide reassurance to lenders, and inform consumers. We understand from lenders that in general they follow the advice of surveyors and that most no longer have blanket policies.
The government cannot comment on the decisions made by individual lenders. However, the presence of spray foam should not automatically prevent lending, and decisions should be made on a case-by-case basis following a survey. Whilst one lender may be unable to offer a mortgage to a customer, this does not prevent them from being offered credit elsewhere.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, pursuant to the Answer of 14 February 2025 to Question 29262 on Insulation: Housing, if he will launch an investigation into homes that had spray foam installed under the Green Grant Scheme.
Answered by Miatta Fahnbulleh - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government recognises that the system of quality assurance and consumer redress that we inherited needs reform. This work is already underway, with the existing system being tightened, but we will set out plans for root and branch reform as part of the Warm Homes Plan.
Under the Green Home Grant Voucher Scheme (GHGVS) the previous Government did not specify which types of insulation should be installed in any particular property, only that the installations should be carried out by TrustMark registered installers in accordance with the relevant standards and consumer protection requirements.
If the installation has met the standards required in the GHGVS, we would not expect it to require removal or prevent a mortgage from being issued given the publication of the inspection protocol that surveyors can use to make a judgement.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
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 standing charges on retirees in Devon.
Answered by Miatta Fahnbulleh - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
We know that too much of the burden of the bill is placed on standing charges. We are committed to lowering the cost of standing charges and have worked constructively with the regulator, Ofgem, on this issue. Ofgem has carried out detailed distributional analysis as part of its wider work on standing charges.
In February, Ofgem launched a consultation ‘Introducing a zero standing charge energy price cap variant’ - https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/consultation/introducing-zero-standing-charge-energy-price-cap-variant. Under these proposals, consumers would have the option of tariffs with a zero standing charge within the price cap.
The consultation closed on 20 March and we stand ready to continue work with Ofgem on this matter.