Warm Home Discount

Sam Rushworth Excerpts

Thursday 19th June 2025 Commons Chamber

[Miatta Fahnbulleh]

Northern Ireland runs its own separate scheme. We are in very close contact with the Northern Irish Government—in fact, I was in Northern Ireland yesterday. We are making sure that our work to deliver clean power, which is our route to lowering bills, and, critically, our work through the warm homes plan is co-ordinated. The hon. Member is right that there are people across the country who are struggling at the moment, and it is absolutely our responsibility to take action to support them.

[Sam Rushworth (Bishop Auckland) (Lab)]

I thank the Minister for this announcement. As she will recall, we met back in September to discuss my concerns about fuel poverty in my constituency, including the number of children living in cold homes. We specifically talked about this measure. She has taken it away, done the hard graft and delivered, so I thank her for that. As she said in her statement, there are people who may not get the discount because they do not know that they are entitled to it. The Government will know which people are receiving the warm home discount and which people are on a means-tested benefit and are not receiving it. Will she consider writing to those families to make sure that everybody knows the good news that this Government are putting more money into their pockets?

[Miatta Fahnbulleh]

I thank my hon. Friend for the work he has been doing to champion this agenda. I can confirm that we will be writing to all households in receipt of means-tested benefits to let them know that they are eligible for the discount. For the vast majority, it will be automatic; they will not have to do anything, and the discount will turn up as a credit on their bills. There is a bit of action to take for people who are not the bill payer. We will get the message out that they must ensure that they are included as the bill payer in order to get the automatic support.