Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, which local authorities have been allocated funding through the green homes grant local authority delivery scheme.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
I refer the hon Member to the answer I gave on 22 October to Question UIN 105421.
Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, which local authorities applied to the green homes grant local authority delivery scheme.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
BEIS are in the process of agreeing grant offers for 57 successful projects under the Local Authority Delivery scheme that will upgrade the energy efficiency of around 11,000 low-income households across England. Once grant offers have been finalised with those Local Authorities, a list will be published on GOV.UK.
Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how much funding has been allocated in the form of vouchers under the Green Homes Grant scheme to date.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
As of 16:00 on 20 October 2020, the Green Homes Grant voucher scheme had received 20,903 grant applications. Applications are currently being processed and checked for compliance with the scheme rules.
Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent assessment he has made of the level of demand for grants under the Green Homes scheme.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
The Green Homes Grant opened to applications on the 30 September 2020. As of 16:00 on 20 October 2020, 20,903 grant applications have been received, reflecting the high levels of consumer interest there are in the scheme. BEIS will continue to monitor application data as the scheme progresses.
Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many households have applied for grants under the Green Homes Grant scheme to date.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
As of 16:00 on 20 October 2020, the Green Homes Grant voucher scheme had received 20,903 grant applications.
Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the incentives to improve the energy efficiency of (a) private rented accommodation and (b)(i) council-owned and (ii) housing association-owned socially rented accommodation.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
The latest tranches of Energy Company Obligation (ECO2 and ECO3) are currently being evaluated, with an evaluation report expected to be published in due course. We will also be reviewing in due course the effectiveness of our recently launched incentives of the Green Homes Grant and the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund Demonstrator.
Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
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 announcement of 30 September 2020 on the Green Homes Scheme, when he plans to bring forward legislative proposals to increase the fines for non-compliance with energy efficiency requirements for landlords in the private rented sector.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
The Department has recently launched a consultation on improving the energy efficiency performance of privately rented homes. As part of the consultation, we are proposing to raise the maximum financial penalty per property and per breach of the regulations from £5000 to £30000.
The consultation, published on GOV.UK at https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/improving-the-energy-performance-of-privately-rented-homes, will run till the end of December 2020.
Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what estimate his Department has made of the number of homes expected to be fitted with low carbon heating systems by 2030.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
There are a number of options with the potential to play an important role in decarbonising heat, including heat networks, heat pumps, hydrogen and biogas. Given the diversity of heat demand, no one solution can provide the best option for everyone - a mix of technologies and customer options will need to be available to decarbonise heat at scale.
The Government is planning to publish a Heat and Buildings Strategy in due course, which will set out the immediate actions we will take for reducing emissions from buildings. These actions include the deployment of energy efficiency measures and low carbon heating as part of an ambitious programme of work required to enable key strategic decisions on how we achieve the mass transition to low-carbon heat and set us on a path to decarbonising all homes and buildings.
Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent assessment he has made of the potential merits of requiring construction businesses to hold public liability insurance that covers work experience students.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
Work experience students are considered to be employees, and will be covered by the employers' liability insurance policy of a business, provided the insurer is a member of the Association of British Insurers, or Lloyds.
Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps the Government is taking to support small breweries.
Answered by Paul Scully
We fully recognise the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic is having on small businesses, including breweries. That is why we introduced an economic package to help small businesses, such as grants, loans and the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme. The Government is continuing to work with the hospitality sector during the pandemic, including regular engagement with representatives from the industry.