Asked by: Sarah Jones (Labour - Croydon Central)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what progress has been made on banning the installation of fossil fuel boilers by 2025 in new build homes.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Government is committed to achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. We are clear that the continued use of fossil fuels for heating is not compatible with that ambition.
When it is implemented in 2025, the Future Homes Standard will ensure that all new build homes are zero carbon ready. While building regulations themselves do not mandate or ban the use of any specific technologies, we intend to set the performance standard at a level which means that new homes will not be built with fossil fuel heating.
In line with that ambition, the 2020 Energy White Paper committed to consulting on whether it is appropriate to end gas grid connections to new build homes from 2025, in favour of clean energy alternatives. We will provide more detail on the Government’s approach in our Heat and Buildings Strategy, which we will publish in due course.
Asked by: Sarah Jones (Labour - Croydon Central)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will ensure that insulation products used in the public sector decarbonisation scheme are aligned with the Government ban on combustible materials.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
The Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme will invest £1 billion by giving grants to public sector bodies to fund energy efficiency and low carbon heat measures, supporting up to 30,000 skilled jobs.
All measures installed using the scheme must comply with all relevant legislation.
Asked by: Sarah Jones (Labour - Croydon Central)
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 support hydrogen development as a sustainable energy resource in order to meet the Government's pledge to become carbon neutral by 2050.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
The Government is committed to exploring the development of hydrogen as a strategic decarbonised energy carrier, alongside electricity and other decarbonised gases. We are investing in innovation, with up to £108m supporting a range of projects to explore and develop the potential of low carbon hydrogen across the value chain from production to end use. We are investing in production at scale through the development of the £100m Low Carbon Hydrogen Production Fund, announced in 2019, and developing sustainable business models to support low carbon hydrogen production at scale. Alongside this we are working with a range of stakeholders to develop opportunities for scale up of UK hydrogen, notably through the Industrial Clusters Mission and the Offshore Wind Sector Deal.