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 the covid-19 outbreak on the number of households in (a) Coventry North East constituency, (b) Coventry, (c) the West Midlands and (d) England that have fallen into arrears with their energy supplier; and what steps his Department is taking to protect vulnerable households in energy arrears during the covid-19 outbreak.

The Government has introduced a number of financial support mechanisms to support households who may be under greater financial pressure due to Covid-19.

On top of the support to household incomes, including uplift to Universal Credit and the wage support schemes, the £2 billion Green Homes Grant will support domestic energy efficiency measures, and the Energy Company Obligation scheme provides around £640 million per year to help fuel poor and low income households stay warm while reducing their energy bills.

We also successfully negotiated an agreement with energy suppliers to support customers impacted by COVID-19. Based on the circumstances, this could include reassessing, reducing, or pausing debt repayments for households in financial distress and support for prepayment meter customers to stay on supply.