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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps the Government is taking to accelerate the electrification of (a) heat and (b) transport.

The electrification of heat, notably through heat pumps, can play a key role in decarbonizing heat, which is an essential step in meeting our carbon budgets. The Government is committed to supporting the deployment of heat pumps. Through the Renewable Heat Incentive we are spending £2.8bn between 2018/19 and 2020/21 to support innovative low carbon heat technologies in homes and businesses, including heat pumps.

The Government is currently developing the future policy framework for supporting low carbon heat, including through the Future Homes Standard announced by my. rt. hon. Friend Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer in February 2019. This will set standards through building regulations to drive uptake in low carbon heating.

Low consumer awareness and confidence in heat pumps also remain key issues. BEIS will launch a demonstration project on the electrification of heat in 2019, which will help demonstrate the feasibility of a possible large-scale transition to heat pumps and develop innovative solutions that work for a wide range of homes and consumers.

The Government is working to put the UK at the forefront of the design and manufacturing of zero emission electric vehicles, and for all new cars and vans to be effectively zero emission by 2040.

To achieve this, we are investing nearly £1.5bn‎ between April 2015 and March 2021, with grants available for plug in cars, vans, lorries, buses, taxis and motorcycles, and schemes to support charge point infrastructure at homes and workplaces and on residential streets.

The Road to Zero Strategy was published last year, it sets out a clear pathway to zero emissions, to give clarity and certainty to both industry and motorists.