Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how obligated Energy Company Obligation suppliers identify off-gas grid homes for the purposes of the rural sub-obligation of the Energy Company Obligation.

Obligated suppliers can identify off-gas grid homes through off-grid maps. There are several maps and data available online that suppliers could use. Maps such as those found on Xoserve.com and nongasmap.com can be detailed enough to show postcodes in off-gas grid areas. Government also publishes local authority area statistics of households not connected to the gas network.

Those off-gas grid could be supported under ECO with the installation of a first time central heating system, and this support can be linked to connection to the gas grid under the Fuel Poverty Network Extension Scheme. This scheme requires gas distribution companies to extend their network to communities where fuel poverty is high.