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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how much funding from the EU is proposed to be allocated to (a) improve the energy efficiency of the housing stock and (b) to reduce fuel poverty in England in the next (i) five years and (ii) ten years; and whether that funding from the EU will still be available in the event that the UK leaves the EU.

Under the EU’s 2014-2020 Multiannual Financial Framework there are several funding streams that bodies within England may bid for to help them address fuel poverty and the energy efficiency of the housing stock, such as the European Regional Development Fund and Horizon 2020. However, this funding is not automatically allocated and must be successfully applied for by interested entities, and is not specifically ringfenced for energy efficiency or fuel poverty. The precise amount of EU funding allocated to address these issues therefore varies year-on-year. Given this variability, it is not possible to confirm what EU funding could be allocated in future years.

In December 2017 the UK Government secured the agreement of the EU to continue providing funding until the current programmes end in 2020, and also undertook to underwrite current EU commitments. As such, any existing contracts will be honoured by either the UK Government or the EU until 2020. Following our departure from the EU we will create the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF), a domestic investment programme aimed at tackling inter-community inequality. We will be consulting on the UKSPF's design later this year, with the final decisions on its detail and operation being made following the 2019 Spending Review.