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 ensure that 100 per cent of the £2 billion allocated budget for the Green Homes Grant is awarded to householders and local authorities by the deadline of March 2022.

The £2 billion pledged to the Green Homes Grant (GHG) is comprised of £500m of funding for the Local Authority Delivery (LAD) element and £1.5 billion of funding originally allocated to the Voucher Scheme for use in the 2020/21 financial year.

All £500m LAD funding is planned to be allocated to Local Authorities and Regional Energy Hubs, as appropriate, before the end of March 2021. This will be delivered in three phases:

- Phase 1A: over £74 million was allocated in October 2020 to fund energy efficiency projects in over 100 Local Authorities by June 2021.

- Phase 1B: around £126 million of grant offers were made to 81 Local Authorities in January 2021, for delivery of energy efficiency projects by September 2021.

- Phase 2: will see funding of £300m allocated to the five Local Energy Hubs this financial year, to deliver energy efficiency projects by December 2021.

The Voucher Scheme was designed to provide a short-term economic stimulus while tackling our contribution to climate change. However, the prevalence of Covid-19 since the scheme’s launch in September last year has led to an understandable reluctance on the part of the public to welcome tradespeople into their homes. We will continue to work with the scheme’s administrator to ensure voucher applications are processed as quickly as possible. As of 22 February 2021, 25,770 vouchers have been issued. £320 million of funding was announced for the Voucher Scheme for 2021/22 in the November 2020 Spending Review.