Asked by: Alan Whitehead (Labour - Southampton, Test)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether housing associations will be included in the Treasury-led Review of the Energy Bill Relief Scheme to assess the energy support they will require beyond March 2023.
Answered by Graham Stuart
HM Treasury is currently conducting a review of the Energy Bill Relief Scheme. Evidence from housing associations has been received. The Government cannot confirm which sectors will receive further support after 31st March 2023 until the end of the review, which will report by the end of the year.
Asked by: Alan Whitehead (Labour - Southampton, Test)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if his department will publish a comparative analysis of the support available under the (a) Energy Bill Relief Scheme and (b) Energy Price Guarantee.
Answered by Graham Stuart
Monitoring and evaluation processes are underway for both the Energy Bill Relief Scheme (EBRS) and Energy Price Guarantee (EPG),and further details will be published in due course. Illustrative examples of the level of discount that could be received under the EBRS and EPG have been published on GOV.UK, as well as the unit rate reductions for the EPG scheme for the periods of October to December and January to March. Given the number of different contractual arrangements, range of demand and complexity of the non-domestic market, it would not be practical to undertake a direct comparative analysis between the two schemes.
Asked by: Alan Whitehead (Labour - Southampton, Test)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to the Answer of 25 November 2022 to Question 93406 on Carbon Capture and Storage: Technology and with reference to The University of Manchester’s report entitled Capturing the Carbon Opportunity published in 2022, whether his Department plans to take steps to scale up (a) storage and (b) transport infrastructure for the carbon that is captured in an industrial process.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Government recognises the critical role that carbon capture and storage can play in supporting industrial decarbonisation across the UK and in delivering Net Zero. That is why the Government launched the Carbon Capture, Usage and Storage cluster sequencing process, with the aim of having four clusters operational by 2030. Following the selection of the first two clusters – Hynet and the East Coast Cluster – the Government recently announced a shortlist of projects to proceed to due diligence. Details of the process for selecting the next two clusters will be set out in due course.
Asked by: Alan Whitehead (Labour - Southampton, Test)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent assessment he has made of the potential merits of launching a public information campaign to reduce energy demand.
Answered by Graham Stuart
A new £18 million public information campaign, launched on Monday 28 November as part of the Government’s wider Help for Households campaign, offer technical tips and advice for people to cut their energy use, while also keeping warm this winter.
Alongside Government support like the Energy Price Guarantee and Energy Bill Support Scheme, the Help for Households website includes actions people can take to save further money on their energy bills such as:
Asked by: Alan Whitehead (Labour - Southampton, Test)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether the UK is seeking to re-join Euratom.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The United Kingdom exited Euratom on 31 December 2021, as per the Withdrawal Agreement. The Government has no intention of re-joining either Euratom or the EU and considers the matter of UK membership permanently settled.
The UK negotiated a separate, comprehensive Nuclear Cooperation Agreement (NCA) with Euratom, which came into effect alongside the Trade and Cooperation Agreement on 31 December 2020, which provides the basis for on-going nuclear cooperation with EU.
Asked by: Alan Whitehead (Labour - Southampton, Test)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to the Answer of 15 November to Question 83507on Bulb Energy, whether his Department knew how much money had been drawn down under the funding agreement by Bulb Energy when a deal was agreed with Octopus Energy on the sale of Bulb.
Answered by Graham Stuart
Yes. The Government scrutinises and approves draw down requests received by Teneo under the funding agreement. To date, the total drawn down amount under the funding agreement is £1.143bn.
Asked by: Alan Whitehead (Labour - Southampton, Test)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, for what reason it is no longer his policy to provide £50 million funding for heat network customers under the domestic alternative fuel payment.
Answered by Graham Stuart
Energy Bill Support Scheme (EBSS) Alternative Funding will provide a £400 discount on energy bills for the small percentage of households that will not be reached through the Energy Bills Support Scheme. Eligibility, timescales and method of delivery will be announced in the coming weeks.
Heat network consumers receive support through the Energy Bill Relief Scheme (EBRS) and will not receive the Alternative Fuel Payment, which has been designed to support households using alternative fuels. As the EBRS will be scaled back from April 2023 the Government will bring forward a route to deliver bespoke support for those on heat networks. Further details will be published shortly.
Asked by: Alan Whitehead (Labour - Southampton, Test)
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 help increase home insulation by 2025.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Government is investing over £6.6 billion over this Parliament to help decarbonise homes and buildings, including insulation, and an additional £6 billion will be made available from 2025-2028.
The Government has committed to a ]-year, £4 billion extension and expansion of ECO with ECO4 to accelerate its efforts to improve homes to meet fuel poverty targets. The Government has also announced a further £1 billion extension of the scheme through ECO+ to start in Spring 2023.
The Government has also launched a digitally led service ‘find ways to save energy in your home’. The site provides tailored guidance to help consumers make their homes greener and cheaper to run.
Asked by: Alan Whitehead (Labour - Southampton, Test)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with reference to paragraph 5.13 of the Autumn Statement, CP 751 published on 17 November 2022, if he will make it his policy to regulate to (a) tighten the domestic minimum energy efficiency standards and (b) phase out fossil heating systems.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Government is considering a number of options for increasing energy efficiency standards. For the domestic Private Rented Sector, the Government has consulted on raising the standard to EPC Band C for new tenancies from 1 April 2025, and for all tenancies by 1 April 2028.
The Government is committed to decarbonising heating by 2050, and aims to phase out the sale of new and replacement gas boilers by 2035. The Government will introduce a package of measures that will increase the number of heat pump installations to 600,000 a year by 2028. Heat networks will expand through the Green Heat Networks Fund whilst the feasibility of using hydrogen for heating is assessed.
Asked by: Alan Whitehead (Labour - Southampton, Test)
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 is taking steps to help ensure the take-up of voluntary measures to reduce energy demand.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Government’s existing public information campaign, Help for Households, is driving up the public’s awareness of all the support available to help them with the cost of living. The Help for Households website includes simple actions people can take to save money on their energy bills, alongside automatic Government support like the Energy Price Guarantee and Energy Bill Support Scheme. The Government is also investing £6.6 billion this Parliament to improve energy efficiency across the country, with much of its support targeting low income and vulnerable households.