Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what assessment he has made of the impact of Government policy on home insulation and retrofitting on (a) the UK’s net zero target and (b) levels of fuel poverty.

The Government is firmly committed to achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050, and to upgrading as many homes as possible to achieve EPC band C by 2035 where cost-effective, practical and affordable. By 2021, 47% of homes in England had reached EPC C, up from 14% in 2010.

In England, our statutory fuel poverty target is to ensure that as many fuels poor households as is reasonably practicable achieve a minimum energy efficiency rating of a Band C by 2030. In 2022, an estimated 52.8 per cent of all low-income households were living in a property with a fuel poverty energy efficiency rating (FPEER) of band C or better.