Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester, Gorton)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what progress his Department has made on implementing the Sustainable warmth: protecting vulnerable households in England strategy, published 11 February 2021.
Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The Government is committed to reviewing the strategy regularly and delivering on its statutory fuel poverty target. Fuel poverty statistics are published annually to track progress against the target. The latest statistics were published on 28th February 2023: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/annual-fuel-poverty-statistics-report-2023.
Energy efficiency improvements are the best way to tackle fuel poverty long term. The Government is delivering improvements in low income, vulnerable and fuel poor homes through the Energy Company Obligation (ECO), Home Upgrade Grant, Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund and Local Authority Delivery schemes. The Government also announced an additional £1bn for further energy efficiency improvements through the Great British Insulation Scheme.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, how much his Department has spent on (a) home insulation and (b) retrofitting in each year since 2010.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Government provides funding for home insulation and retrofit measures through the Home Upgrade Grant, Green Homes Grant – Local Authority Delivery, Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund, Public Sector Decarbonisation schemes and previously the Green Homes Grant Voucher Scheme. The most recent funding allocations from these schemes can be found on GOV.UK.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government (1) what steps they are taking to increase the rate at which homes are insulated under the Great British Insulation Scheme, and (2) what consideration they have given to placing the targets under the Scheme on a statutory footing.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Great British Insulation Scheme is expected to be established by summer 2023, with obligated energy suppliers able to deliver measures before this, from 30 March 2023, following the publication of the government response to last year’s consultation on scheme design. Yearly targets will be set including minimum levels of delivery, whilst also allowing energy suppliers to deliver more rapidly and have measures counted towards their scheme obligation overall.
The Statutory Instrument for the scheme will be laid before Parliament later in spring 2023, putting scheme targets and other requirements on a statutory footing.
Asked by: Luke Pollard (Labour (Co-op) - Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 20 March 2023 to Question 165250 on Ministry of Defence: Housing, if he will provide a breakdown of what the £73 million from the service family accommodation improvement budget spent by his Department for the financial year 2022-23 was spent on.
Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
The table below shows how the £73 million Service Families Accommodation improvement budget for financial year (FY) 2022-23 was spent. Please note many projects span more than one FY, so figures also include expenditure attributed to a type of works which may have begun prior to the start of or after the end of FY 2022-23.
Type of Works | Costs |
Damp and Mould Remediation Works | £4.3 million |
Doors and Windows Replacement | £12.6 million |
External Wall Insulation (includes new doors and windows and roof replacement) | £43 million |
Heating replacements | £2.5 million |
Kitchen trials (updated kitchen specification trials) | £42,000 |
Playparks | £5 million |
SFA Refurbishment | £1.8 million |
Roof replacement | £8 million |
Streetlight replacement | £295,000 |
Structural repair (bringing void properties back online) | £500,000 |
Wire moves – to allow for handback of SFA to Annington Homes | £2.6 million |
Road Resurfacing | £1 million |
TOTAL | c£81 million |
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what grants his Department provides to (a) individuals and (b) businesses to promote energy efficiency.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Government provides grant funding through the Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS) and Home Upgrade Scheme (HUG), with HUG grant funding being delivered through Local Authorities.
The Government also provides support through the Social Housing Decarbonisation and Energy Company Obligation (ECO) Scheme. The ECO4 scheme and newly announced Great British Insulation scheme, being launched in Spring 2023, are delivered through a supplier obligation.
Through the Industrial Energy Transformation Fund, £500 million of grant funding will support industry with high energy usage to cut their energy bills and carbon emissions by investing in energy efficiency and low carbon technologies. The BUS also supports the installations of low carbon heating measures in small non-domestic buildings.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether his Department has made an assessment of potential fire risk posed by spray foam insulation installed under Green Homes Grant Vouchers finance.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
Insulation installed under the Green Homes Grants scheme should have been carried out in accordance with the PAS 2035 standard and all relevant building work must comply with the fire safety requirements of the Building Regulations (Part B).
Asked by: Matthew Pennycook (Labour - Greenwich and Woolwich)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, when he plans to launch the full medium-rise scheme to provide funding to remediate or mitigate unsafe external wall systems on buildings between 11 to 18m in height where the developer of a building cannot be traced or identified.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
I refer the Hon. Member to the answer I gave to Question UIN 170716 on 29 March 2023.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps his Department is taking to help increase household energy efficiency through (a) insulation and (b) boiler upgrades.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Government is investing £6.6 billion over this Parliament on clean heat and improving energy efficiency in buildings, including through the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund, Home Upgrade Grant, and Boiler Upgrade Scheme. In addition, £6 billion of new Government funding will be made available from 2025 to 2028.
The £1 billion ECO+ scheme will be launched from Spring 2023 targeting a broader pool of households in the least efficient homes in lower council tax bands as well as the most vulnerable.
A digital advice service ‘find energy improvements suitable for your home’ on GOV.UK launched in July 2022 to provide improved information to help households identify suitable energy saving measures.
Asked by: Ruth Jones (Labour - Newport West)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what assessment he has made of the impact of Government policy on home insulation and retrofitting on (a) the UK’s net zero target and (b) levels of fuel poverty.
Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The Government is firmly committed to achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050, and to upgrading as many homes as possible to achieve EPC band C by 2035 where cost-effective, practical and affordable. By 2021, 47% of homes in England had reached EPC C, up from 14% in 2010.
In England, our statutory fuel poverty target is to ensure that as many fuels poor households as is reasonably practicable achieve a minimum energy efficiency rating of a Band C by 2030. In 2022, an estimated 52.8 per cent of all low-income households were living in a property with a fuel poverty energy efficiency rating (FPEER) of band C or better.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what discussions he has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on investment in (a) home insulation and (b) heat pumps in order to improve energy efficiency in the context of (i) the cost-of-living crisis and (ii) achieving the UK's Net Zero targets.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Government is investing £6.6 billion over this Parliament on clean heat and improving energy efficiency in buildings, including through the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund, Home Upgrade Grant, and Boiler Upgrade Scheme. In addition, £6 billion of new Government funding will be made available from 2025 to 2028.
The new ECO+ scheme will be worth £1 billion and run from Spring 2023 – March 2026. The scheme will target a broader pool of households in the least efficient homes in lower council tax bands as well as the most vulnerable.
The Government considers improving the energy efficiency of homes to be the best long-term method of tackling fuel poverty.