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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he is taking to reduce the use of fossil fuelled boilers; and if he will introduce targets to phase them out.

In order to meet our net zero commitment, we must transition away from fossil fuel heating systems. We are developing policies to support the deployment of low carbon heating supporting consumers financially to help them transition away from fossil fuel heating through initiatives such as the Renewable Heat Incentive. We are spending £2.8bn between 2018 and 2021 through the Renewable Heat Incentive, to support the deployment of low carbon technologies such as heat pumps.

We also recently launched the Green Homes Grant vouchers scheme meaning homeowners and residential landlords can receive up to £5000 towards the installation of an approved low carbon heating measure. In due course we shall be setting out our proposals for the decarbonisation of heat in the Heat and Building Strategy.

In addition, in the Future Homes Standards consultation, which closed 7 February, we proposed that new homes should have 75-80% fewer CO2?emissions than ones built to current building regulation standards.?This will not be achievable using conventional gas boilers in new build properties. We will respond to this consultation in due course.