Asked by: Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many households they have helped with home insulation measures in the last 12 months.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
From 1 December 2022 to 30 November 2023 (latest available data), around 97,100 insulation measures were installed in domestic properties under the following schemes: Energy Company Obligation, Great British Insulation Scheme, Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund, Green Homes Local Authority Delivery and Home Upgrade Grant. Under these schemes, some households may have had more than one type of insulation measure installed. Statistics for each of these schemes are published on the gov.uk website.
Asked by: Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat - Bath)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, with reference to her Department's publication entitled Evaluation of the Green Homes Grant Voucher Scheme, published in June 2023, how many (a) leaseholders and (b) freeholders (i) applied for and (ii) received funding from the Green Homes Grant Voucher Scheme.
Answered by Andrew Bowie - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Information on the number of household applications and the number of households with at least one measure installed under the Green Homes Grant Voucher scheme can be found in Table 1.1 of the latest Green Homes Grant Voucher statistical release.
The Department does not hold data on the leasehold or freehold status of property owners under the scheme.
Asked by: Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat - Bath)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what data her Department holds on the number of (a) leaseholders and (b) freeholders that have received retrofitting grants in the last 12 months.
Answered by Andrew Bowie - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government does not record this data.
Under the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund, Home Upgrade Grant, and Local Authority delivery schemes, grants are allocated to local authorities rather than individual households. For these schemes the Government does not hold data on whether the property is leasehold or freehold. For the Energy Company Obligation, grants are not given to individual households as energy companies are obligated to install measures.
For the Boiler Upgrade scheme where grants go directly to households, the Government also does not collect information about the leasehold or freehold status of a property owner that applies for the grant.
Asked by: Margaret Greenwood (Labour - Wirral West)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, with reference to the Citizens Advice report entitled Demand: Net Zero, published in May 2023, what steps her Department is taking to reduce the upfront costs of home retrofitting for households.
Answered by Graham Stuart - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government is investing £6.6 billion over this Parliament on clean heat and improving energy efficiency in buildings. In addition, £6 billion of new Government funding will be made available from 2025 to 2028.
The Government's ‘Help to Heat’ schemes ensure homes will be warmer and cheaper to heat. The schemes will deliver upgrades to over half a million homes in the coming years through the Government's Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund, Home Upgrade Grant Scheme and Energy Company Obligation.
The Government is also improving its consumer advice and guidance and mobilising the Green Finance Market.
Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps she is taking to help people who use oil to heat their homes to transition to low carbon heating systems.
Answered by Graham Stuart - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Decarbonising off-grid properties, including households that rely on heating oil, is a priority for the Government. The Government is providing support through schemes such as the £450 million Boiler Upgrade Scheme and the £950 million Home Upgrade Grant.
Low carbon heating measures can be costly to install and unaffordable for many low-income families. The Home Upgrade Grant will support these families to transition to low carbon heating and prepare for a low carbon future.
The Government is also improving its consumer advice and guidance and mobilising the Green Finance Market.
Asked by: Valerie Vaz (Labour - Walsall South)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, if he will make an assessment of the adequacy of the services provided by Eaves Energy Solutions Ltd in providing works funded by the public purse under the Green Homes Grant voucher scheme; and what assessment he has made of the (a) adequacy and (b) value for money of energy improvement works more broadly to homes under that scheme.
Answered by Graham Stuart - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Under the Green Homes Grant voucher scheme, installers were TrustMark-registered, MCS-certified for heat and PAS-certified for energy efficiency, therefore thoroughly vetted against trading practices. Installers regularly had their work inspected to ensure quality. The scheme monitored quotes provided by installers to prevent over-charging and robust counter-fraud measures were built into the scheme.
Interim findings from the scheme evaluation, including on installation quality and initial assessment of value for money, were published in January 2023. The final evaluation will be published Summer/Autumn 2023.
Constituents should raise complaints regarding an installation directly with their installer. If their issues are not resolved, further information can be found here: https://www.trustmark.org.uk/homeowners/if-things-go-wrong.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, when he plans to complete Green Homes Grant Local Authority Delivery projects originally awarded (a) Phase 1A and (b) Phase 1B grants.
Answered by Graham Stuart - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Green Homes Grant Local Authority Delivery projects which were awarded through Phase 1A and Phase 1B grants have been completed by way of a managed closedown of the projects. All project delivery for Phases 1A and 1B was completed by the end of September 2022.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what estimate he has made of a) the number of FTE jobs needed to deliver upgrades funded by the (a) Green Homes Grants and (b) Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund; and what estimate he has made of the capacity of the industry to deliver the funded measures.
Answered by Graham Stuart - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
For work carried out under Government schemes, installers are required to be TrustMark registered, as well as PAS certified for energy efficiency measures and MCS certified for low carbon heating measures. According to the data held by TrustMark, the number of registered installers eligible to participate on the Green Homes Grant Voucher Scheme increased from around 455 when the scheme was first announced in summer 2020 to around 1496 by May 2021. In April 2023, there were 1915 TrustMark businesses across the UK which were certified to PAS or MCS standards.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, how much and what proportion of funding awarded under Phase One of the Green Homes Grant Local Authority Delivery Scheme has been spent; and how many households are awaiting completion of projects awarded under those grants.
Answered by Graham Stuart - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
£131.9 million (65.1%) was spent out of a total of £202.7 million awarded under Phase One of the Green Homes Grant Local Authority Delivery Scheme.
As of May 2023, there were no outstanding households awaiting completion of projects under the Green Homes Grant Local Authority Delivery Scheme.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, with reference to the Green Homes Grant Local Authority Delivery Release May 2023, published on 18 May 2023, what the delivery challenges were that required some Phase 1A delivery and funding to be moved to Phase 1B.
Answered by Graham Stuart - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The main delivery challenges that required some Phase 1A delivery and funding to be moved to Phase 1B included the impact of the Covid pandemic on access to tenant properties and the supply chain. Other challenges included shortages of labour and material and price increases.