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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment his Department has made of progress towards its ambition of ensuring that all homes achieve an Energy Performance Certificate rating of Band C by 2015, as set out in the Clean Growth Strategy.

For the purpose of this response, I assume that the question is referring to the ambition for homes to reach Band C by 2035, rather than 2015. Good progress has already been made improving the energy performance of our housing stock, with 30% of homes in England at Band C or above, with a further 51% already at Band D, according to the 2017 English Housing Survey. This is up from 7% and 40% respectively in 2007.

Since the publication of the Clean Growth Strategy we have:

• Reformed the Energy Company Obligation to focus on those households in or at risk of fuel poverty
• Issued a call for evidence on building a market for energy efficiency, on which we will set out more detail in the forthcoming Green Finance Strategy and Energy White Paper
• Introduced regulations on 1st April 2018 which require landlords to bring their properties to EPC Band E or above, and amended these further to require a contribution of up to £3,500 from landlords towards the cost of improvements from 1^st April 2019.
• Launched supply chain pilots in six local areas focusing on building capacity and reducing costs
• Launched a new digital service, Simple Energy Advice, to provide impartial and tailored advice to homeowners and tenants.
• Worked with industry to launch a new quality mark for home energy improvements, implementing the recommendations of the independent Each Home Counts review
• Established a £10 million innovation project to reduce the cost of whole house retrofit.