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 whether the level of discount offered by the Warm Home Discount scheme is adequate for people in need experiencing additional energy price rises from April 2022.

The Warm Home Discount is funded by energy suppliers, who generally recoup the costs from customers’ energy bills. However, the Government sets the spending target each year. The target is set to balance providing significant rebates to as many households as possible, while minimising the impact on consumers’ bills. For this year, 2021/22, the overall spending target is £354 million.

Given the fixed funding available for the scheme, increasing the rebate amount for households would reduce the number of households receiving support. Following a consultation last year, the Government decided to keep the rebate amount at £140 this winter to maximise the number of households that the scheme is able to reach. This year, we expect around 2.2 million households across the country will receive rebates.

The Government recently consulted on the future of the scheme beyond 2022. This consultation included a proposal to increase the rebate amount to £150 from the 2022/23 scheme year onwards, balancing increasing the value of the rebate against ensuring that as many fuel poor households as possible are able to access this much-needed support.