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 made an assessment of the potential effect of a national retrofit strategy on the level of the UK's reliance on gas.

Natural gas will have an ongoing role to play as the UK decarbonises, however achieving net zero by 2050 means the Government will need to stop burning unabated natural gas in homes and business for heating purposes.

The Government's recently published retrofit strategy, the Heat and Buildings Strategy, signalled its ambition to phase out new natural gas boilers from 2035, with decisions to be taken in 2026 about the potential role of hydrogen boilers as an alternative.

The Government has also committed £3.9 billion of funding over the next 3 years to retrofit UK homes and buildings and is extending the Energy Company Obligation Scheme until 2026.