Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)
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 the National Wealth Fund on offshore wind supply chain development.
Answered by Michael Shanks - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The National Wealth Fund builds on the success of the UK Infrastructure Bank, expanding its mandate, with an enhanced risk budget, to support the broader Industrial Strategy.
The National Wealth Fund aims to address key barriers to investment and strengthen the entire value chain, by catalysing more private investment and accelerating investable projects coming to market to unlock growth opportunities across the UK. This will ensure robust support for domestic clean energy supply chains.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether he has had discussions with the Secretary of State for Business and Trade on the potential merits of including support for the wind industry in the Government’s industrial strategy.
Answered by Michael Shanks - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Given the key interactions between the two departments, this Department is in regular discussions with the Department of Business and Trade regarding the Industrial Strategy
Due in Spring 2025, the Industrial Strategy will channel support to eight key growth-driving sectors – those in which the UK excels today and will excel tomorrow – and this includes Clean Energy Industries. Future work will be done to determine the key subsectors, using evidence collected from the Invest 2035 Green Paper and further evidence-gathering.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what discussions he has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on offshore wind supply chain development.
Answered by Michael Shanks - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Chancellor has launched the National Wealth Fund, capitalised with £27.8bn, to mobilise billions of pounds of investment in the UK’s world-leading clean energy and growth industries.
£8.3bn has also been announced for Great British Energy which will work in lockstep with the National Wealth Fund.
The Government has just launched the Clean Industry Bonus, an addition to Contract for Difference (CfD) payments for fixed and floating offshore wind developers who invest in their supply chains.
The Government will set out its full approach to supporting UK clean energy supply chains in the Industrial Strategy in the spring.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of continuing grant funding to the offshore wind supply chain investment.
Answered by Michael Shanks - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government has just launched the Clean Industry Bonus, an addition to Contract for Difference (CfD) payments for fixed and floating offshore wind developers who invest in their supply chains.
The Government has capitalised the National Wealth Fund with £27.8bn, which will mobilise billions of pounds of investment in the UK’s world-leading clean energy and growth industries, and support the delivery of the Industrial Strategy.
£8.3bn has also been announced for the newly created Great British Energy which will work in lockstep with the National Wealth Fund.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of an industrial strategy for offshore wind.
Answered by Michael Shanks - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
As set out in the recent Invest: 2035 Green Paper, clean energy industries are a priority growth sector for the UK. The Government will set out its full Industrial Strategy in the spring to deliver the certainty and stability businesses need to invest in the high-growth sectors that will drive our growth mission.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, how many people are in receipt of the warm home discount in Runcorn and Helsby constituency.
Answered by Miatta Fahnbulleh - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The most recent published statistics on Warm Home Discount can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/warm-home-discount-statistics-2023-to-2024
The published statistics use parliamentary constituency boundaries as defined prior to the 2024 General Election.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, if she will make an estimate of the number of buildings in which insulation was installed through government-funded grant schemes in which remediation of that insulation is required.
Answered by Amanda Solloway
The Government does not hold the data on the number of buildings where insulation has been installed through a government funded scheme and subsequently required remediation work.
Since 2019, all installations under government energy efficiency schemes have been required to be carried out by TrustMark registered and PAS 2030 or MCS certified businesses to improve the quality of installations and protect consumers. TrustMark registered installers are required to provide all consumers with a guarantee covering the installation work for up to 25 years for a range of energy efficiency measures.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps his Department is taking to publish up-to-date carbon usage for each local authority.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The UK local and regional greenhouse gas emissions national statistics, 2005 to 2020 set out emissions data down to the local authority level.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what recent estimate he has made of when the Aston Grange solar and energy storage project will be connected to the power grid.
Answered by Andrew Bowie - Shadow Minister (Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government does not hold information on, nor has it estimated, the network connection date for this project. The latest publicly available information on the connection of the Aston Grange project is provided on the Scottish Power Energy Networks Embedded Capacity Register:
https://www.spenergynetworks.co.uk/pages/embedded_capacity_register.aspx.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, if he will make an assessment of the implications for his policies of delays in providing the Alternative Fuels Payment to people in Weaver Vale constituency.
Answered by Amanda Solloway
Over 85% of eligible households have received the payment automatically via their electricity supplier during February. Most households did not need to take any action to receive the support. A small proportion of households will need to apply for the AFP, for example because they do not have a relationship with an electricity supplier. Applications for this Alternative Fund opened on 6 March through a GOV.UK portal which includes an overview of eligibility and what steps households need to take to apply for support.