Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North East Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether he plans to take steps to alter the Grade E Energy Performance Certificate minimum requirement to Grade C under the provisions of the Domestic Minimum Energy Efficiency Standard (MEES) Regulations; and what assessment he has made of the potential merits of supporting landlords to improve the energy efficiency of their tenant's home in an economically effective way.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government remains committed to the aspiration, set out in the Clean Growth Strategy, that as many homes as possible are improved to Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) Band C by 2035, and as many private rental homes as possible by 2030 where practical, affordable and cost effective. The Government recently consulted on improving the energy performance in private rented homes to EPC Band C by 2028 and will publish a response in due course.
The Government recognises that financial support may be needed, in particular where poorer performing homes are occupied by lower income and fuel poor tenants. Therefore the Government has a number of schemes available including the Sustainable Warmth project, which comprises a third phase of the Local Authority Delivery scheme, as well as the first phase of the Home Upgrade Grant, which can be used for low-income households both on and off the gas grid. In summer this year, the Government consulted on the next iteration of the Energy Company Obligation scheme, ECO4, which will run from 2022-26 and will be worth £1 billion per year. The Government continues to support low-income households in private rented sector properties, subject to householder eligibility requirements.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North East Bedfordshire)
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 effect of intelligent electrical heating on the effectiveness of Energy Performance Certificate gradings.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
The Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) is used to assess the energy performance of homes. It produces an annual estimate of a dwelling’s energy consumption, running cost and carbon emissions and these calculations form the basis of an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC). At present, we do not have a standard way of reflecting intelligent electric heating systems in SAP, so they are treated the same way as normal electric heating systems when calculating an EPC. The Department will consider how to better reflect the impact of intelligent electrical heating for the next version of SAP, SAP 11.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North East Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with reference to costs to private rented properties for achieving grade C on their Energy Performance Certificates, what assessment the Government has made of the potential merits of staging that progress in line with economic returns of private rented properties.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
The consultation on improving the energy performance of the privately rental homes to EPC band C is open until 30 December 2020. As part of the consultation we are seeking views on affordability and are inviting stakeholders to submit relevant evidence. The Government will set out its response following the closure of the consultation.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North East Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what plans he has to support off grid homes in rural areas decarbonise their home heating.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
As stated in the Clean Growth Strategy (2017), the Government is committed to ‘phase out the installation of high carbon fossil fuel heating in homes not connected to the gas grid, starting with new homes, during the 2020s.’ The first part of this commitment, to decarbonise?new homes, is being met through the Future Home Standard, on which government consulted earlier this year. The Future Homes Standard will require new build homes to be future-proofed with low carbon heating and world-leading levels of energy efficiency, and is set to be introduced in 2025. We are developing proposals for phasing out fossil fuel heating in existing homes in off-gas-grid areas and will be consulting on them in due course.
Additionally, we are providing financial support to help decarbonise homes of the gas grid. This is being done through:
Further support will be provided from 2022 to 2024 through the Clean Heat Grant scheme. This will provide financial support to help consumers and small businesses transition to low carbon heating through the installation of heat pumps?and, in limited circumstances, biomass.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North East Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what comparative assessment he has made of the average cost for an (a) off grid rural home and (b) urban home to meet average energy efficiency standards.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
In the Clean Growth Strategy, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy stated the aspiration for as many homes as possible to be EPC Band C by 2035 where practical, cost-effective and affordable. As a result, it focusses its analysis on the cost of bringing homes up to this standard, rather than the current stock average. The recent PRS Regulations Consultation stage Impact Assessment shows the expected cost of upgrading rented homes up to EPC band C under different cost cap scenarios (table 12). It also shows costs assumptions for energy efficiency and heating systems (Tables 31-32).
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North East Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with reference to the coronavirus local authority discretionary grants scheme, whether his Department has made an assessment of the effect of the introduction of additional criteria by local authorities in addition to those criteria set by his Department.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Local Authority Discretionary Grants Fund (LADGF) announced on 1 May has supported many thousands of small businesses in England not liable for business rates or rates reliefs and therefore out of scope of the main Small Business Grants Fund (SBGF) and Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grants Fund (RHGLF) schemes. The Department asked local authorities to prioritise certain types of businesses through the LADGF, but we also allowed them the discretion to add additional local eligibility criteria according to local economic need. Local authorities naturally took different approaches to this since they differ in scale and local requirements.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North East Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with reference to the coronavirus local authority discretionary grants scheme, how many local authorities added additional eligibility criteria to the scheme.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Local Authority Discretionary Grants Fund (LADGF) announced on 1 May was established to support certain small businesses not liable for business rates or rates reliefs and therefore out of scope of the main Small Business Grants Fund (SBGF) and Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grants Fund (RHLGF) schemes. The department asked local authorities to prioritise certain types of businesses through the LADGF, but we also allowed them the discretion to add additional local eligibility criteria according to local economic need. We do not receive management information from local authorities on local scheme eligibility criteria over the lifetime of the LADGF.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North East Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many landlords have registered an exemption from having to meet the minimum energy efficiency standards.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
As of 1 July 2020, 9580 exemptions had been registered on the Private Rented Sector Exemptions Register. Of these, 9269 were for domestic properties and 311 for non-domestic properties.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North East Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether he plans to implement the Competition and Market Authority’s (CMA) proposed reforms to the statutory audit market published on 18 April 2019.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Government supports effective and proportionate action to address key issues in the audit market, including the lack of competition and resilience, misaligned incentives, and a lack of public trust.
The Government has analysed the responses to the 2019 Government consultation on the CMA’s study and we intend to set out our comprehensive proposals in response to that consultation in the coming months, seeking views on them where the Government have not already done so. We will then consider bringing forward legislation in due course.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North East Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what his timescale is for responding to the Statutory audit services: initial consultation on the Competition and Markets Authority recommendations which closed in September 2019.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Government has analysed the responses to the 2019 consultation and we intend to set out our response to the consultation alongside comprehensive proposals in the coming months, seeking views on them where the Government has not already done so.