Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of retrofitting schools, colleges and universities to net-zero emission standards by 2030.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Reduction in energy use in new and existing buildings to meet the legislative zero greenhouse gas emissions target by 2050 is a priority for the Government.
Schools can use their condition funding to invest in improving energy efficiency. Since 2015, the Department has allocated £9.5 billion to maintain and improve school buildings, including an additional £560 million in financial year 2020-21. The latest Spending Review committed a further £1.8 billion in financial year 2021-22 for maintaining and improving the school estate.
The Further Education (FE) Capital Transformation Fund delivers the Government’s £1.5 billion commitment to upgrade the FE college and designated institutions’ estate in England. This will target colleges in the worst condition and promote efficient use of space and support the government's objectives on achieving net zero carbon.
In 2020, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy set up the £1 billion Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme which provided grants for eligible public sector bodies, including schools and FE colleges to fund energy efficiency and heat decarbonisation measures. Higher education (HE) institutions were also eligible for these grants.
Whilst this scheme has now ended, schools, FE and HE institutions can apply for interest free loans through the government’s Salix scheme for public sector projects that improve energy efficiency and reduce carbon emissions.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool, Walton)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what progress is being made on the retrofitting of homes and buildings to become more energy efficient.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
In the Clean Growth Strategy (2017), the Government set out its ambitions that all properties should be EPC Band C by 2035, where cost-effective, affordable, and practical. We have demonstrated our ambition as properties at EPC Band C has increased from 9% in 2008 to 34% in 2018. In addition, from 1990 to 2019 emissions from homes has reduced by 17%.
The Green Homes Grant will give homeowners and landlords an opportunity to upgrade the energy performance of their homes. We also plan on introducing the Future Homes Standard by 2025, which will help ensure that the homes in the UK will be fit for the future. Homes across the UK will be future proofed with leading energy efficiency and low carbon heating measures. The £50m Social Housing Decarbonisation Demonstrator will make progress toward increasing the energy efficiency of social housing. The £1 billion Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme will offer grants to public sector buildings, including schools and hospitals, to fund both energy efficiency and low carbon heat upgrades.
The Government is also planning to publish a Heat and Buildings Strategy in due course, which will set out the immediate actions we will take for reducing emissions from all homes and buildings and set buildings on track for net zero.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of retrofitting schools to become zero carbon schools on (a) carbon emissions and (b) behaviour change.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
The Public Sector Energy Efficiency Loan scheme provides interest-free loans which enable schools, and other public sector organisations, to make improvements to their buildings to reduce carbon emissions. The public sector, including schools, can play an important role in driving wider behaviour change by demonstrating leadership in reducing their emissions.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of retrofitting schools to become zero carbon schools on school budgets.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department has allocated £9.5 billion since 2015 to improve the condition of the school estate, including improving energy efficiency. This includes an additional £560 million in capital funding this year, announced by my right hon. Friend, the Prime Minister, in June.
Interest-free loans for energy efficiency projects in maintained schools have also been made available through the Government-backed Salix finance scheme and to academies through an annual application process.
On 29 June, the Government also announced a 10-year school rebuilding programme. This will replace school buildings that are ageing or in poor condition with modern, energy-efficient designs that will help to meet the Government’s net zero target.
More broadly, the Department is working with colleagues across the Government on carbon reduction and energy efficiency and on developing thinking on how future capital programmes can contribute further.
My right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, has already announced £1 billion to support making public buildings greener, including schools and hospitals, which will help the country meet its ambitions of achieving net zero by 2050.
Further details on future capital funding will be set out at the Spending Review.
Asked by: Nickie Aiken (Conservative - Cities of London and Westminster)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether he is taking steps to maximise human wellbeing and minimise environmental harms under a sustainable programme of economic recovery from the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
My Rt. Hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has undertaken an intensive programme of engagement to inform the Government's approach to economic recovery from the COVID-19 outbreak. One of the five key themes guiding this process is that of creating a 'green recovery'. In his speech of June 30, my Rt. Hon. Friend the Prime Minister made clear that in recovering from COVID-19, we must build back greener. The UK has shown that growing our economy and cutting emissions can be achieved at the same time. Last week, my Rt. Hon. Friend Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer announced a package of over £3 billion to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from buildings, which will support up to 140,000 green jobs. This includes £50m to demonstrate innovative approaches to retrofitting social housing at scale, to start the decarbonisation of social housing over 20/21; a £2 billion ‘Green Homes Grant’ to help people improve the efficiency of their homes accelerating progress towards net zero, while supporting jobs and reducing energy bills; and, £1 billion investment over the next year in a new Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme to upgrade public sector buildings, including schools and hospitals, making them fit to help meet net zero with energy efficiency and low carbon heat measures. This comes as part of our commitment to ensuring that the UK's economic recovery is sustainable, placing human well-being centre stage by promoting a safe, clean and healthy environment for citizens to live and work in.
Asked by: John McNally (Scottish National Party - Falkirk)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps the Government is taking to use the UK's potential economic recovery from the covid-19 outbreak to accelerate a transition to a carbon neutral economy.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
In his speech of June 30, the Prime Minister made clear that in recovering from COVID-19, we must build back better, build back greener, build back faster, and to do that at the pace that this moment requires. Our economy must be greener, more sustainable, and more resilient.
The UK has shown that growing our economy and cutting emissions can be achieved at the same time. We have grown our economy by 75% while cutting emissions by 43% over the past three decades. The UK has over 460,000 jobs in low carbon businesses and their supply chains and many of the actions we need to take to reach our target of net zero emissions by 2050 will support jobs and growth across the UK.
The Government announced an ambitious support package for our low carbon economy at the Spring budget, including £800m fund for Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) and £1bn in support for ultra-low emission vehicles infrastructure. In his 30 June speech, my Rt. Hon. Friend the Prime Minister announced further measures including up to £100m of new funding to research and develop Direct Air Capture (DAC) technology; a Green Recovery Challenge Fund of up to £40m to kick start a programme of nature-based projects to address the twin challenges of halting biodiversity loss and tackling climate change; and, recommitting to planting 30,000 hectares of trees every year by 2025.
On July 8, my Rt. Hon. Friend Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer delivered an economic update setting out the next stage in our plan to support the UK’s recovery from the pandemic. The Government announced an additional £3 billion green investment to create thousands of green jobs and upgrade buildings. This includes £50m to demonstrate innovative approaches to retrofitting social housing at scale, to start the decarbonisation of social housing over 20/21; a £2 billion ‘Green Homes Grant’ to help people improve the efficiency of their homes accelerating progress towards net zero, while supporting jobs and reducing energy bills; and, £1 billion investment over the next year in a new Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme to upgrade public sector buildings, including schools and hospitals, making them fit to help meet net zero with energy efficiency and low carbon heat measures.
We will continue to build on this even further and deliver a stronger, greener, more sustainable economy after this pandemic. The Government will continue to set out further measures as part of its green agenda in the run up to COP26 in November 2021.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking with the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy to (a) assess the effect of energy efficiency retrofitting of schools on (i) local jobs and (ii) carbon emissions and (b) and encourage schools to retrofit.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department supports sustainability through its capital funding and programmes, both to reduce carbon and save schools money on energy. The Department has allocated over £7.4 billion in condition funding since 2015, the majority of which enables local authorities, multi-academy trusts and schools to determine how it is invested in maintaining and improving their school buildings, including energy efficiency measures. More broadly, we are working with colleagues across Government, including the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, on carbon reduction and energy efficiency and developing thinking on how future capital programmes can contribute further.
In addition to this, we announced on 29 June a commitment to a multi-wave, 10 year school rebuilding programme. Full details of these projects will be confirmed in the autumn and further funding will be set out as part of the Spending Review.
This will replace poor condition and ageing school buildings with modern, energy efficient designs, transforming education for thousands of pupils and helping to meet the Government’s net-zero target and to tackle climate change.
Asked by: Richard Graham (Conservative - Gloucester)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on support for renewable sources of energy.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
Ministers regularly discuss issues including renewable energy, including as part of the Government’s commitment to meeting net zero by 2050.
In 2019, the Government set a legally binding-target to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions from across the UK economy by 2050. We agree with the Committee on Climate Change’s view on the importance of a diverse mix of power generation sources to achieve that with renewables providing the majority of our electricity by 2050 alongside firm low carbon power from sources such as nuclear, and gas or biomass generation with carbon capture and storage. The Government has introduced many initiatives to increase the supply of renewable energy production in the UK.
We have committed up to £557m of annual support for future Contracts for Difference, providing developers with the confidence they need to invest in bringing forward new projects and we are supporting our world-leading offshore wind industry through the 2019 sector deal.
In order to support smaller scale renewable electricity generation, the Government introduced the Smart Export Guarantee on 1 January, which gives?small scale low-carbon electricity generators, such as?homes with?solar?panels,?the right to?be paid for the renewable electricity they export to the grid.
The Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) supports the transition to low-carbon heating in the UK, helping generate renewable heat for schools, hospitals and more than 12,000 social housing properties. The scheme is designed to bridge the gap between the cost of fossil fuel heat sources and renewable heat alternatives through financial support for owners of participating installations. The RHI helps to sustain and build the supply-chains needed to deliver our aspirations for renewable heat in 2020 and beyond
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. This will involve large-scale transformation, including disruption to consumers and wide-ranging change to energy systems and markets: the way heating is supplied to over 28 million homes, businesses and industrial users will need to change.
We are working to develop a new policy framework for the long-term decarbonisation of heat. This will set out the programme of work required to enable key strategic decisions on how we achieve mass transition to low carbon heating.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if his Department will make an assessment of the (a) environmental, (b) economic and (c) educational merits of installing solar panels on schools.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Reduction in energy use in new and existing school buildings to meet the net zero carbon emissions by 2050 target is a priority for the UK Government. Generating sustainable energy, where sites and buildings allow, is supported by Salix loans available to schools.
Research into the environmental, economic and educational merit of photovoltaic solar panels is well founded and the Department welcomes schools developing educational outcomes that support work to mitigate climate change.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent estimate his Department has made of the number of (a) school, (b) college and (c) university buildings in each Display Energy Certificate band; and what the total number is of such institutions required to hold an Display Energy Certificate.
Answered by Nick Gibb
In response to the legally binding target of reducing UK carbon emissions to net zero by 2050, the Department is reviewing building standards and specifications for school buildings to ensure this can be met. This will include data gathering, investigation of appropriate actions and effectiveness of any actions to reduce emissions.
At present the Department does not hold information on Display Energy Certificate data on schools, colleges or universities. The Department is working with the Department for Business Energy and Industrial Strategy to access energy data from the education estate to influence future policy decisions. We do not currently hold accurate estimates of consumption by energy type or source.
The Department is working with University College London’s energy unit on assessing energy use and carbon emissions across the schools estate. We encourage those responsible for further education and higher education estates to address energy reduction to support action on climate change.
Through the Condition Data Collection (CDC) programme the Department estimates that the total floor area of school buildings in England is approximately 80 million square metres. The CDC is being extended to further education colleges and the corresponding data will be available in due course. The Department can also access similar data from the Higher Education Statistics Service.