Asked by: Alan Whitehead (Labour - Southampton, Test)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, pursuant to the Answer of 23 January 2023 to Question 126504 on Property: Heating, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of amending part 14 of schedule 2 to the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015 to ensure that air source heat pumps may be installed under permitted development rights in all properties.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) are currently conducting an independent review of air source heat pumps. Future policy announcements will be made in the usual way.
Asked by: Alan Whitehead (Labour - Southampton, Test)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people are in receipt of disability payments; and what the annual cost to the public purse is of these payments.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The number of claimants who received Personal Independence Payment (PIP) in each month, up to and including October 2022, is published and can be found on Stat-Xplore. The number of claimants who received Attendance Allowance (AA) and Disability Living Allowance (DLA) in each month, up to and including August 2022, is also published on Stat-Xplore. Guidance on how to use Stat-Xplore can be found here. An account is not required to use Stat-Xplore, the ‘Guest Login’ feature gives instant access to the main functions.
Annual expenditure data for AA, DLA and PIP is published and can be found in the ‘Disability benefits’ sheet within the Benefit expenditure and caseload tables 2022 - GOV.UK (www.GOV.UK) for years up to 2021/22. Data for 2022/23 will be published in due course.
The Scottish Government took on responsibility for disability benefits in Scotland from 2020/21, so expenditure data for Scotland only covers years up to 2019/20. Information on expenditure in Scotland from 2020/21 is the responsibility of the Scottish Government.
Asked by: Alan Whitehead (Labour - Southampton, Test)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what comparative assessment he has made of the accuracy of the estimate by (a) Octopus Energy and (b) the Office for Budget Responsibility of the cost to the public purse of the administration of Bulb Energy.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Office for Budget Responsibility’s (OBR) figure has been forecast in accordance with usual processes. The OBR’s figures are a snapshot of Government’s potential financial exposure as per modelling undertaken in September 2022. They do not include the entity’s repayments of wholesale costs at the price cap, which may be more or less than the gross wholesale energy costs and are not an estimate of the likely net costs to the taxpayer from Bulb. Costs will continue to fluctuate, driven by market volatility meaning any published figures remain uncertain.
Asked by: Alan Whitehead (Labour - Southampton, Test)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people in the UK are in receipt of pension credit; and what the annual cost is of that credit.
Answered by Laura Trott - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
In August 2022, the total Pension Credit caseload is 1.38 million. The forecasted real terms expenditure for the financial year 2022/23 is estimated to be approximately £4.9 billion.
Statistics of Pension Credit caseload is publicly available via Stat-Xplore. Available here: DWP Stat-Xplore
Estimates of real terms expenditure of Pension Credit are available in the ‘Benefit Expenditure and Caseload tables 2022’ publication, which can be found at Benefit Expenditure and Caseload tables 2022 - GOV.UK
Asked by: Alan Whitehead (Labour - Southampton, Test)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the total cost of Winter Fuel Payments to eligible households is for (a) 2021-22 and (b) 2022-23.
Answered by Laura Trott - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The total cost of Winter Fuel Payments for 2021/22 was £1,971 million. The Winter Fuel Payment for 2022/23 also included the Pensioner Cost of Living Payment of £300 per household and the total cost is estimated to be £4.6 billion.
Asked by: Alan Whitehead (Labour - Southampton, Test)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the cost to the public purse of local authority Emergency Assistance Payments was for (a) 2021-2022 and (b) 2022-2023.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
During the financial years 2021/22 and 2022/23, the Department for Work and Pensions has supported Local Authorities in England to provide discretionary support with basic essentials to those most in need through the Covid Local Support Grant and Household Support Fund grant schemes. The Department for Work and Pensions does not provide any funding called ‘Local Authority Emergency Assistance Payments’.
During the financial year 2021/22 the Covid Local Support Grant ran from April to September 2021 and the Household Support Fund ran from October 2021 to March 2022. The total funding allocated for these schemes in England was £621m and the total expenditure was £615m.
For the current financial year 2022/23, DWP has allocated funding for the Household Support Fund in England of £842m. This has been provided in two separate tranches. The total expenditure will be confirmed in due course, once the financial year has ended.
Local Authorities in England can also make similar payments out of their wider funding, received from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities through the Local Government Finance Settlement.
The devolved administrations are responsible for their own Local Welfare Assistance provision.
Asked by: Alan Whitehead (Labour - Southampton, Test)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what the cost to the public purse of the warm home discount was for (a) 2021-2022 and (b) 2022-2023.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Warm Home Discount is a supplier obligation scheme, and participating energy suppliers are responsible for providing rebates and funding Industry Initiatives.
In 2021/22, the only costs to Government were administrative costs associated with running the scheme. Participating energy suppliers provided £359 million of support to households.
The final figure for the amount of support delivered under the scheme in 2022/23 will be available in Ofgem’s annual report later in the year.
Asked by: Alan Whitehead (Labour - Southampton, Test)
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 the cost to the public purse of the Energy Price Guarantee for financial year 2022-2023.
Answered by Graham Stuart
On 3rd February, the Department published expenditure figures for the Energy Price Guarantee. As of 29th December 2022, GB and NI EPG expenditure totalled £6.97 billion.
The Office for Budget Responsibility’s current forecasted expenditure of the EPG for the financial year 2022/23, as published in November 2022, is £24.8 billion. The OBR will be publishing updated figures on 15th March, with updated forecasts expected to be lower than published in the Autumn Statement.
Asked by: Alan Whitehead (Labour - Southampton, Test)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment with Cabinet colleagues of the potential effect of the Electricity Generator Levy on the international competitiveness of the renewables sector.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
Britain is a global leader in renewable energy. Since 2010, our renewable energy production has grown faster than any other large country in Europe. We are committed to ensuring that the UK remains one of the best places in the world to invest in clean energy and have set stretching deployment ambitions, including up to 50GW of offshore wind by 2030. The Government is supporting renewables deployment through a range of policy levers, including the Contracts for Difference scheme, through which generators have received almost £6 billion net in price support to date.
The Electricity Generator Levy is a proportionate approach to recovering a share of the extraordinary profits being realised by certain generators which will help to fund our vital public services and our support for households and businesses facing increased energy bills.
The importance of continued investment in renewables has been reflected in the design of the levy setting the benchmark price at a level approximately 50% more than the average electricity price over the last decade, indexing the benchmark price to inflation and providing a £10 million allowance below which the levy will not be charged.
Asked by: Alan Whitehead (Labour - Southampton, Test)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of implementing an investment allowance for the renewable energy sector within the Electricity Generator Levy.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
Britain is a global leader in renewable energy. Since 2010, our renewable energy production has grown faster than any other large country in Europe. We are committed to ensuring that the UK remains one of the best places in the world to invest in clean energy and have set stretching deployment ambitions, including up to 50GW of offshore wind by 2030. The Government is supporting renewables deployment through a range of policy levers, including the Contracts for Difference scheme, through which generators have received almost £6 billion net in price support to date.
The Electricity Generator Levy is a proportionate approach to recovering a share of the extraordinary profits being realised by certain generators which will help to fund our vital public services and our support for households and businesses facing increased energy bills.
The importance of continued investment in renewables has been reflected in the design of the levy setting the benchmark price at a level approximately 50% more than the average electricity price over the last decade, indexing the benchmark price to inflation and providing a £10 million allowance below which the levy will not be charged.