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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the resources local authorities will need to replace fossil fuel heating in their buildings and housing stock to meet the Government's net zero carbon emission targets.

The Government recognises that Local Authorities have an important part to play in tackling climate change, including in heat and buildings decarbonisation. Meeting our net-zero target will require virtually all heat in buildings to be decarbonised, and heat in industry to be reduced to close to zero carbon emissions. Local Authorities can play a number of important roles in heat and buildings decarbonisation, including decarbonising heat in their own buildings and raising awareness of the support available to increase voluntary uptake of low carbon heat and energy efficiency measures. Local Authorities are able to apply for funding to decarbonise heat in their buildings through the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme.

We also work closely with Local Authorities to support heat pump and heat networks deployment through schemes such as the Local Authority Delivery scheme and Local Energy Hubs, as well as providing funding through the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund to improve the energy performance of social homes. In addition, the Government is providing funding and prioritising support for councils to tackle climate change as part of the annual Sector Support Programme delivered by the Local Government Association in 2021/22.

The upcoming Heat and Buildings Strategy will set out further details on how we plan to work with local authorities to meet our ambition on heat and buildings decarbonisation.