Asked by: Alex Norris (Labour (Co-op) - Nottingham North and Kimberley)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether he has made a recent estimate of the proportion of Energy Company Obligation funding spent on identifying suitable homes for energy efficiency measures.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
The costs for identifying suitable homes has been estimated at around £257m for the three and a half year duration of ECO3 (2018 – 2022). That would be around 11% of the total estimated cost of the scheme.
Asked by: Alex Norris (Labour (Co-op) - Nottingham North and Kimberley)
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 2.15 of the Budget 2020 Red Book, what his timetable is for bringing forward amendments to the non-domestic Renewable Heat Incentive Scheme Regulations 2018.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
On 28th April 2020 BEIS published a Stakeholder Notice on changes to the Renewable Heat Incentive Schemes (RHI). The proposals were to extend the Domestic RHI for a further year, introduce a new allocation of Tariff Guarantees on the Non-Domestic RHI and extend current Tariff Guarantee commissioning deadlines. These proposed changes are designed to provide for a smooth transition into the future support schemes for low carbon heat and afford large scale projects impacted by delays to construction due to Covid-19 additional time to commission and receive RHI funding. This Notice closed to responses on 19th May 2020.
BEIS understands the importance of delivering as much certainty to industry as possible at this time. As such, having now analysed the responses received to the Notice, officials are working to publish the Government Response and make the necessary regulatory changes in the coming weeks.
Asked by: Alex Norris (Labour (Co-op) - Nottingham North and Kimberley)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of low carbon heating technologies on new build homes; and what steps the Government is taking to provide financial support for those technologies.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
In the Government’s Future Homes Standards consultation, which closed 7 February, we proposed that new homes built to this standard should have 75-80% fewer CO2 emissions than those built to current building regulation standards. An impact assessment on the Future Homes Standard will be published when we consult on the details of the policy proposals. We will carefully consider any impacts on costs and housing supply as part of the consultation.
Asked by: Alex Norris (Labour (Co-op) - Nottingham North and Kimberley)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether local authorities are legally empowered to enforce compliance with energy efficiency standards for homes.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
Since 1 April 2020, The Energy Efficiency (Private Rented Property)(England and Wales) Regulations 2015 (“the Regulations”) require that, subject to certain exemptions, all domestic private rented sector landlords improve their properties to a minimum energy efficiency standard of Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) band E. Local authorities have a range of powers under the Regulations to enforce compliance with the minimum energy efficiency standard, including the ability to serve a compliance notice, a financial penalty and/or a publication penalty that makes details of the breach available to the public.
The Department has launched a landlord exemptions register (“the PRS Exemptions Register”) which is used by local authorities to help target their enforcement activity, and is conducting enforcement pilots with local authorities to develop best practice around enforcement of the Regulations.
In addition, local authorities use the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (“HHSRS”), a health-based, risk assessment framework, to evaluate 29 specific hazards, including excess cold, in homes. For private rented sector properties, if a HHSRS assessment identifies a hazard at 'category 1' level, then local authorities have a duty to take formal enforcement action, ranging from a Hazard Awareness Notice to an Emergency Remedial Action (where remedial works are carried out immediately by the local authority and the landlord billed). The HHSRS also forms part of the Decent Homes Standard, the minimum standard that social housing should meet.
Asked by: Alex Norris (Labour (Co-op) - Nottingham North and Kimberley)
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 has taken to support energy suppliers in meeting smart meter installation targets during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
Ofgem wrote to energy suppliers on 8 April 2020 to provide them with flexibility to temporarily deprioritise non-essential meter installations. This enabled energy suppliers to focus on: ensuring that customer needs were met, particularly the most vulnerable; maintaining secure, reliable and safe supplies of energy to consumers in the short to medium term; and ensuring the safety and protection of consumers and their workforces.
The Government is working with energy suppliers to re-mobilise the roll-out of smart meters, further to guidance published on 11 May 2020 on working safely in people’s homes during COVID-19.
Asked by: Alex Norris (Labour (Co-op) - Nottingham North and Kimberley)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of bringing forward legislative proposals to make installation of smart meters in residential homes mandatory to help ensure targets for installation of that technology are met.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
The Government has consulted on proposals for a new policy framework to continue to drive market-wide rollout of smart meters after the current duty on energy suppliers ends in December 2020.
We are carefully considering the range of responses and evidence submitted, ahead of publishing a Government response. We will see seek to do this as soon as is practicable.
Asked by: Alex Norris (Labour (Co-op) - Nottingham North and Kimberley)
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 potential merits of making it compulsory for new build homes to be fitted with smart meters.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
The New and Replacement Obligation (NRO) in requires energy suppliers to take all reasonable steps to install a compliant smart meter where a meter is fitted for the first time including in new build properties.
The Government has consulted on proposals for a new policy framework to continue to drive market-wide rollout of smart meters after the current duty on energy suppliers ends in December 2020. This consultation sought views from stakeholders about what policy measures the Government should consider in order to complement the proposed market-wide rollout obligation.
We are carefully considering the range of responses and evidence submitted, ahead of publishing a Government response. We will see seek to do this as soon as is practicable.
Asked by: Alex Norris (Labour (Co-op) - Nottingham North and Kimberley)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether brewery businesses with fewer than 50 employees will be eligible for payments from the Discretionary Fund for local authorities announced on 2 May 2020.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Government has announced that 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.
The additional Local Authority Discretionary Grants Fund is aimed at small businesses with ongoing fixed property-related costs but not liable for business rates or rates reliefs. We are asking local authorities to prioritise businesses in shared spaces, regular market traders, small charity properties that would meet the criteria for Small Business Rates Relief, and bed and breakfasts that pay council tax rather than business rates.
Local Authorities are responsible for defining precise eligibility for this fund and may choose to make payments to other businesses based on local economic need, subject to those businesses meeting the specific eligibility criteria. Businesses seeking information should refer to their Local Authority for further information on their discretionary scheme. Businesses already in receipt of the Small Business Grant Fund (SBGF), Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grant Fund (RHLGF) or Self-employed Income Support Scheme are not eligible.
Guidance, intended to support Local Authorities in administering the Discretionary Grants Fund, was published 13th May.
Guidance here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance-on-business-support-grant-funding
This will not replace existing guidance for the Small Business Grant Fund (SBGF) or the Retail Hospitality and Leisure Grant Fund (RHLGF).
Guidance here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-business-support-grant-funding-guidance-for-businesses
Asked by: Alex Norris (Labour (Co-op) - Nottingham North and Kimberley)
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 make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing an exemption for pubs with a rateable value of £51,000 or above to enable them to be eligible for local authority business support grant funding.
Answered by Paul Scully
Under the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grant Fund (RHLGF) businesses in England that would have been in receipt of the Expanded Retail Discount (which covers retail, hospitality and leisure) on 11 March 2020, with a rateable value of less than £51,000, will be eligible for cash grants of up to £25,000 per property. Businesses with a rateable value of £51,000 or over are not eligible for this scheme.
Businesses which are not eligible for the grants schemes should be able to benefit from other measures in the Government’s unprecedented package of support for business, including:
Asked by: Alex Norris (Labour (Co-op) - Nottingham North and Kimberley)
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 accuracy of British Beer and Pub Association statement that at the end of April 2020 only 40 per cent of pubs had received local authority business support grants for which they were eligible.
Answered by Paul Scully
As of 3 May, over 697,000 business premises have received grants across the Small Business Grants Fund and Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grants Fund, totalling over £8.6 billion. We do not receive management information from local authorities broken down by sector. We have, however, published, a full breakdown of grant funding allocated to and distributed by each local authority here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-grant-funding-local-authority-payments-to-small-and-medium-businesses.
Government has made £12.3 billion available to businesses under the Small Business Grants Fund and the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grants Fund. On 1 May, the Government announced a further £617 million available to help those small businesses with high fixed property-related costs that are not eligible for the current grant schemes. We will be issuing Local Authority Discretionary Grants Fund guidance for local authorities in due course. Local authorities are responsible for delivering these grants to businesses and government is working closely with all local authorities to help deliver grants as quickly and efficiently as possible.