Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
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 set out his plans (a) to accelerate the uptake in heat and ground pumps and (b) for the roll out other renewable heating sources.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
As announced in the Ten-Point Plan, we aim to install 600,000 hydronic heat pumps per year by 2028. We are putting together a comprehensive policy package to support this ambition, including targeted regulatory, market-based and public investment measures.
These measures include the Future Homes Standard that will ensure new homes are built with high levels of energy efficiency and low carbon heating from 2025, the Clean Heat Grant scheme, launching in 2022, and a new market-based policy putting industry at the heart of growing the heat pump market.
Heat pumps have already been proven to work at scale in buildings, delivering effective heating with lower emissions than fossil fuel heating. However, there are a range of potential low carbon heating solutions, including hydrogen, heat networks and biomethane that could help deliver our net zero target. We will set out further details on how we accelerate uptake of heat pumps and our approach to other low carbon heating technologies in our forthcoming Heat and Buildings Strategy
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many businesses failed in each month of the 2007-08 financial crisis.
Answered by Paul Scully
Monthly data on business closures during the 2007-2008 financial crisis are not available.
Data on total annual business closures have been provided in the table below, showing annual numbers of business closures between 2006 and 2010.
Table: Annual number of business closures, 2006 to 2010, all registered businesses
Year | Number of business closures |
2006 | 207,000 |
2007 | 224,000 |
2008 | 223,000 |
2009 | 277,000 |
2010 | 250,000 |
Source: Office for National Statistics ‘Business Demography, UK: 2011’
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether his Department has made an estimate of the number of businesses which have failed in each month since April 2020.
Answered by Paul Scully
Monthly data on business closures since April 2020 are not available.
Quarterly data on business closures since April 2020 can be provided.
The table below contains this information, along with numbers of business closures in each quarter of 2019 and quarter 1 2020 for reference.
Table: Quarterly UK business closures, 2019 to 2020, all registered businesses
Quarter and Year | Number of business closures |
Q1 2019 | 85,260 |
Q2 2019 | 101,505 |
Q3 2019 | 83,145 |
Q4 2019 | 77,815 |
Q1 2020 | 120,235 |
Q2 2020 | 93,055 |
Q3 2020 | 76,265 |
Q4 2020 | 106,400 |
|
|
Source: Office for National Statistics 'Business demography, quarterly experimental statistics, UK'
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department is taking to encourage and incentivise businesses to embrace innovative green technologies and to invest in green jobs, skills and training in the North West.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
We are determined to seize the opportunities of the net zero transition, which by one estimate could support up to 2 million green jobs by 2030 across all regions of the UK. My Rt. Hon. Friend the Prime Minister’s 10 Point Plan will create long-term advantage for the UK in low-carbon technologies and services. Investment in the green economy across sectors including offshore wind, nuclear, low carbon heating, CCUS and clean hydrogen will benefit regions across the UK.
We will bring forward the Local Recovery and Devolution White Paper, detailing how the Government will build a sustainable economic recovery across the country. We have also launched the Green Jobs Taskforce to advise what support is needed for people in transitioning industries. The taskforce will conclude its work in spring 2021, with the actions feeding into our Net Zero Strategy to be published later in the year.
The Government’s actions are delivering results in the North West. We have invested in excess of £4m of the Local Growth Fund in Cumbria for developing skills in higher and further education, working alongside employers to support high quality jobs in new and emerging sustainable and green technologies. This includes support for Kendal College on training for future jobs such as electric vehicle maintenance, with over 600 apprentices supporting employers in the green economy in South Lakeland.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what plans the Government has to incentivise investment capital in low carbon (a) innovation, (b) technology and (c) energy solutions to help accelerate the delivery of regional decarbonisation targets.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
My Rt. Hon. Friend the Prime Minister’s 10 Point Plan for a green industrial revolution will create long-term advantage for the UK in low-carbon technologies and services. It will support up to 250,000 green jobs, levelling up regions across the UK, and reinvigorate our industrial heartlands. The Plan will mobilise £12 billion of government investment to unlock three times as much private sector investment by 2030.
Delivering clean investment at the scale and pace required will mean taking bold steps. That is why we will issue the UK’s first Sovereign Green Bond and we will create a new infrastructure bank for the UK which will co-invest alongside private sector investors in infrastructure projects.
As part of the Plan, we announced £1 billion for the Net Zero Innovation Portfolio to develop the cutting-edge technologies needed to reach our energy ambitions. We are also investing up to £500 million for low carbon hydrogen production across the decade with £240 million confirmed out to 2024/2025 and £1 billion to capture carbon from power stations and industry, helping to support 50,000 jobs.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
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 extend the Green Homes Grant for 12 months to March 2022 to (a) allow the full uptake of the scheme and (b) help stimulate new green jobs.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
The Government is committed to improving the building stock as part of reaching our net zero targets. We recognise the importance of providing industry with certainty over demand in future years in order for them to have confidence to invest and grow their businesses.
We are working to provide that certainty and have therefore confirmed that the delivery dates for Green Homes Grant Local Authority Delivery scheme and the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund Demonstrator will extend into 2021/22 to provide assurance that work will be available. Outside of support schemes, we are creating the regulatory environment to drive retrofit and on 30th September we published a consultation on further improving the energy performance of privately rented homes over the 2020s, which provides a clear signal on how Government is committed to improving the housing stock.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether businesses that are eligible for the Self-employment Income Support Scheme will also be able to access the Top-up to local business grant fund scheme announced on 2 May 2020.
Answered by Paul Scully
On 1 May 2020 during a call to Local Authorities, the Government announced that a further up to £617 million is being made available to Local Authorities in England to allow them to provide discretionary grants as part of the suite of Business Support grants to support businesses and local economies across England.
Businesses that have received Self-employment Income Support are not eligible for funding under the Local Authority Discretionary Grants Fund.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he plans to take to extend the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme to businesses that have no rateable property but have been adversely affected by the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Paul Scully
Whether or not a business is liable for Business Rates, or occupies business premises, is not a consideration under the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS).
To be eligible for a facility under CBILS, a smaller business must:
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he is taking to ensure that (a) plumbers and (b) electricians working for clients in confined spaces in domestic properties do not transmit covid-19 between their clients' households.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
Construction and utility workers play a crucial role in supporting our public services, as well as in providing and maintaining safe, decent homes for people to live in.
Based on current medical advice, utility workers who cannot work from home, who show no symptoms of Covid-19, and who live in households where no person is self-isolating, can continue to go to work. We encourage households to continue to engage with tradespeople on this basis so that essential repairs and maintenance can be carried out. Where such work takes place, Public Health England (PHE) guidelines should be followed, including social distancing measures where possible.
Construction activity can continue in line with PHE guidance. Through the Construction Leadership Council, the construction industry has issued Site Operating Procedures (SOP), which align with PHE guidance. The SOP set out that, where it is not possible or safe for workers to distance themselves from each other by 2 metres, then employers should closely consider whether the activity needs to continue for the site to operate.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
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 implications for his policy on work and social distancing of 2 metres of utility workers working (a) in confined domestic residences on jobs that require multiple workers and (b) on construction sites on jobs that require materials to be transported between individuals.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
Construction and utility workers play a crucial role in supporting our public services, as well as in providing and maintaining safe, decent homes for people to live in.
Based on current medical advice, utility workers who cannot work from home, who show no symptoms of Covid-19, and who live in households where no person is self-isolating, can continue to go to work. We encourage households to continue to engage with tradespeople on this basis so that essential repairs and maintenance can be carried out. Where such work takes place, Public Health England (PHE) guidelines should be followed, including social distancing measures where possible.
Construction activity can continue in line with PHE guidance. Through the Construction Leadership Council, the construction industry has issued Site Operating Procedures (SOP), which align with PHE guidance. The SOP set out that, where it is not possible or safe for workers to distance themselves from each other by 2 metres, then employers should closely consider whether the activity needs to continue for the site to operate.