Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many small and medium-sized enterprises have received financial support from the Government in Portsmouth South constituency since 1st January 2022.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Businesses in Portsmouth South will have benefitted from the Government’s reversal of the National Insurance rise, which will save SMEs approximately £4,200 on average, cut to fuel duty for 12 months and the Energy Bill Relief Scheme, to protect small businesses from high energy costs over the winter. In addition, the Recovery Loan Scheme is available to SMEs across the UK.
The Government is also providing financial support for business through the Start Up loan scheme - 185 SMEs in Portsmouth South have received loans to the value of £1,595,221 as of October 2022.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will make an estimate of the number of houses with lofts that have had had loft insulation installed in Portsmouth South constituency as of 31 October 2022.
Answered by Graham Stuart
BEIS estimates that under the Energy Company Obligation (ECO) and Green Homes Grant (GHG) Government schemes, around 3,300 cavity wall insulation measures, 1,100 loft insulation measures, 5 under floor insulation measures and fewer than 5 external wall insulation measures have been installed in Portsmouth South constituency.
Data for ECO covers January 2013 to September 2022. Data for the GHG schemes cover October 2020 to September 2022.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will make an estimate of the number of homes with cavity walls that have been insulated in Portsmouth South constituency as of 31 October 2022.
Answered by Graham Stuart
BEIS estimates that under the Energy Company Obligation (ECO) and Green Homes Grant (GHG) Government schemes, around 3,300 cavity wall insulation measures, 1,100 loft insulation measures, 5 under floor insulation measures and fewer than 5 external wall insulation measures have been installed in Portsmouth South constituency.
Data for ECO covers January 2013 to September 2022. Data for the GHG schemes cover October 2020 to September 2022.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will make an estimate of the number of houses that have had underfloor insulation installed in Portsmouth South constituency as of 31 October 2022.
Answered by Graham Stuart
BEIS estimates that under the Energy Company Obligation (ECO) and Green Homes Grant (GHG) Government schemes, around 3,300 cavity wall insulation measures, 1,100 loft insulation measures, 5 under floor insulation measures and fewer than 5 external wall insulation measures have been installed in Portsmouth South constituency.
Data for ECO covers January 2013 to September 2022. Data for the GHG schemes cover October 2020 to September 2022.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment his department has made on the causes of delays for (a) applications for charging orders to be removed and (b) other applications at HM Land Registry; and when he expects these to be addressed.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Despite extremely high levels of transactions in the property market in recent times, HM Land Registry has continued to deliver the most essential services required to support the property market.
HM Land Registry received approximately 1.8 million more service requests in 2021 than in 2019. As a result of this demand, routine applications are taking longer to process. Any application that is urgent can be expedited free of charge and will be completed within 10 days.
Improving speed of service is the top priority for HM Land Registry and it is addressing this urgently through a combination of recruitment, training, and automation.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether his Department is taking steps to increase the number of green jobs in Portsmouth South constituency.
Answered by Graham Stuart
BEIS is working with DfE and local partners to ensure green skills are considered through Local Skills Improvement Plans. The Government is also working with the Green Jobs Delivery Group to explore how central Government, local Government and businesses can further support local areas to deliver a successful net zero labour market transition.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he is taking to reduce energy consumption of heating of public buildings.
Answered by Graham Stuart
As set out in the Net Zero Strategy, the Government aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from public sector buildings by 75% by 2037. To support this, £2.5 billion is being invested through the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme over the financial years 2020/21 to 2024/25 to provide grants for public sector bodies in England, to fund heat decarbonisation and energy efficiency measures.
The Government Property Function has recently published its Government Property Strategy, which commits to delivering a range of measures designed to create a smaller, better, and greener public estate.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
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 potential merits of introducing support to independent toymakers and sellers.
Answered by Jane Hunt
We have cut business rates by 50% for eligible retail businesses in 2022-23, increased the Employment Allowance to £5,000 cutting the cost of employment for 495,000 small businesses, and increased the Annual Investment Allowance to £1 million.
We have also cut fuel duty by 5p for 12 months, and our Help to Grow programmes will enable eligible SMEs to mitigate the effects of rising costs by providing financial discounts on approved digital technologies up to a value of £5000 and improving SME leadership and management skills though subsidised courses.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether his Department has been contacted by Aquind Limited or its representatives on his decision not to approve the project; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
An application for judicial review has been made on behalf of Aquind Limited in respect of the Secretary of State’s decision of 20 January 2022 to refuse development consent for the AQUIND Interconnector. The Government will not make any further statement on this matter as it is an ongoing legal process.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
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 impact of the spread of the Omicron variant in December 2021 on trends in the level of sales for the hospitality sector; and what plans he has to support local hospitality businesses in Portsmouth.
Answered by Paul Scully
In recognition of the impact that the spread of the Omicron variant had on hospitality businesses during December, the Government announced further support for businesses in recognition of the impact that the spread of the Omicron variant had on hospitality. The Government is providing one-off grants of up to £6,000 per premises for businesses in the hospitality, accommodation and leisure sectors in England plus more than £100 million discretionary funding will be made available for Local Authorities to support other businesses.
Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic we have also provided businesses with an unprecedented support package of £400 billion, including grants, loans, business rates relief, VAT cuts and the job retention scheme. This includes a total of over £26 billion in business grants.
In July 2021, the Department launched the first-ever hospitality strategy to support the reopening, recovery and resilience of England’s pubs, restaurants, cafes and nightclubs. We have also launched the Hospitality Sector Council to oversee the delivery of the strategy, including working with the sector to make hospitality a career option of choice and looking at the labour and skills shortages.
I and officials in the Department continue to engage regularly with the hospitality sector to understand their needs and issues, including monitoring trading conditions.