Asked by: Lord Foster of Bath (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Whitehead on 15 June (HL448), what modelling they have undertaken to estimate the number of individual retrofit measures to be financed through consumer loans under the Warm Homes Plan; and what (1) is their central estimate, and (2) were the assumptions used on loan size and repayment terms.
Answered by Lord Whitehead
The Warm Homes Loan Scheme has been allocated up to £300m CDEL and under the Warm Homes Fund up to £1.7bn. The Government is undertaking detailed modelling, in line with departmental appraisal and analytical standards, to inform estimates of the number of retrofit installations that may be supported.
The number and type of measures financed will depend on several factors, including consumer uptake and the technologies installed; and loan sizes and repayment terms. These elements remain under development and analysis and, therefore, the Government has not yet finalised estimates of the total number of measures to be financed, nor any breakdown by technology type or tenure.
Further information will be published in due course.
Asked by: Lord Foster of Bath (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Whitehead on 15 June (HL448), what estimate they have made of the total number of retrofit measures expected to be financed through consumer loans under the Warm Homes Plan over its lifetime; and what is the annual breakdown of those measures by technology type and tenure, once the loan sizes and terms are set out.
Answered by Lord Whitehead
The Warm Homes Loan Scheme has been allocated up to £300m CDEL and under the Warm Homes Fund up to £1.7bn. The Government is undertaking detailed modelling, in line with departmental appraisal and analytical standards, to inform estimates of the number of retrofit installations that may be supported.
The number and type of measures financed will depend on several factors, including consumer uptake and the technologies installed; and loan sizes and repayment terms. These elements remain under development and analysis and, therefore, the Government has not yet finalised estimates of the total number of measures to be financed, nor any breakdown by technology type or tenure.
Further information will be published in due course.
Asked by: Lord Foster of Bath (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Whitehead on 15 June (HL448), what estimate they have made of the total number of individual retrofit measures that will be financed through consumer loans under the Warm Homes Plan, based on their current assumptions about loan size and repayment terms.
Answered by Lord Whitehead
The Warm Homes Loan Scheme has been allocated up to £300m CDEL and under the Warm Homes Fund up to £1.7bn. The Government is undertaking detailed modelling, in line with departmental appraisal and analytical standards, to inform estimates of the number of retrofit installations that may be supported.
The number and type of measures financed will depend on several factors, including consumer uptake and the technologies installed; and loan sizes and repayment terms. These elements remain under development and analysis and, therefore, the Government has not yet finalised estimates of the total number of measures to be financed, nor any breakdown by technology type or tenure.
Further information will be published in due course.
Asked by: Lord Foster of Bath (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government why the consultation on proposals to enable the safe and legal use of plug-in solar (plug-in microgeneration) products in the UK lasted two weeks, and what consideration they gave to a longer consultation.
Answered by Lord Whitehead
The move to make plug-in solar panels available in shops within months comes as government steps up its drive for clean homegrown power to get the UK off its dependency on fossil fuel markets. Plug-in solar panels provide a new, simple alternative for those who may not have the option of rooftop solar, and could offer savings of up to £110 a year on energy bills for a typical home.
It has been rolled out successfully in other countries. To safely bring plug-in solar to the UK market within this timeframe, we launched an expedited consultation on required regulatory changes alongside running a series of in-depth and targeted meetings with a wide range of stakeholders.
Asked by: Lord Foster of Bath (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government why the consultation proposals from town and parish councils under the Sustainable Communities Act 2007 were issued in 2012 when the Sustainable Communities Act 2007 (Amendment) Act 2010 which enabled these proposals was passed two years before.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
It would not be appropriate to comment on the decisions of a previous administration.
Asked by: Lord Foster of Bath (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government why the consultation Proposals from town and parish councils under the Sustainable Communities Act 2007 was issued in 2012, when the Sustainable Communities Act 2007 (Amendment) Act 2010 that enabled these proposals was passed two years before.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
It would not be appropriate to comment on the decisions of a previous administration.
Asked by: Lord Foster of Bath (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many individual retrofit measures will be financed by the consumer loans offered under the Warm Homes Plan.
Answered by Lord Whitehead
The number of loans, and therefore the number of retrofit measures supported, will depend on factors such as average loan size and repayment terms.
We will set out more detail on loan sizes and terms in due course.
Asked by: Lord Foster of Bath (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of restrictions under section 333(6) of the Gambling Act 2005 to the powers of the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport to make regulations on the remote advertising of gambling following the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union; and what plans they have to restore any powers that have been lost.
Answered by Baroness Twycross - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Government regularly reviews the effectiveness of gambling regulation in Great Britain.
We are not considering an amendment to the Gambling Act 2005 in relation to the remote advertising of gambling at this time.
Asked by: Lord Foster of Bath (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the benefits of measuring heat transfer coefficients on (1) improving retrofit advice, (2) improving retrofit outcomes, (3) protecting consumers, and (4) de-risking finance offers.
Answered by Lord Whitehead
The Warm Homes Plan recognised the potential role of Smart Meter Enabled Thermal Efficiency Ratings (SMETERs) in delivering warmer homes more affordably, including: helping tailor fabric and clean heat retrofit measures to homes; identifying hidden defects for remediation; and driving installation quality. We continue to explore new applications as part of ongoing policy activity.
These benefits form part of the rationale behind our recent consultation on introducing an option for recording SMETER Heat Transfer Coefficients as supplementary information alongside EPC ratings, in the ‘Home Energy Model: Energy Performance Certificates’ consultation. We are reviewing responses and will respond in due course.
Asked by: Lord Foster of Bath (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the relative merits of heat transfer coefficients measured through smart meter enabled thermal efficiency ratings compared to those produced using the current Energy Performance Certificate methodology.
Answered by Lord Whitehead
Smart Meter Enabled Thermal Efficiency Ratings (SMETERs) can provide valuable additional insight on the thermal performance of homes in practice with potential to play an important role in delivering warmer homes more affordably. Work is underway to establish a quality assurance system to support use of SMETERs from end-2026, and we are exploring further applications under the Warm Homes Plan.
In the Home Energy Model: Energy Performance Certificates consultation, available at https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/home-energy-model-energy-performance-certificates, we sought views on an option for recording SMETER Heat Transfer Coefficients as supplementary information alongside EPC ratings. We are reviewing responses and will respond in due course.