Asked by: Jeff Smith (Labour - Manchester Withington)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what estimate he has made of the number of businesses in Greater Manchester who have successfully registered as a certified installer to administer home improvements under the Green Homes Grant scheme.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
The Green Homes Grant Scheme launched for applications on 30 September and as announced on 18 November will run until 31 March 2022.
Our installer data is at Local Authority rather than regional level, so we do not have the total number of installers who cover Greater Manchester. In each of the 10 Local Authorities within Greater Manchester, there are between 57 and 83 TrustMark registered installer businesses available.
Asked by: Jeff Smith (Labour - Manchester Withington)
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 the Green Homes Grant scheme, what estimate he has made of the number of businesses that are eligible to register as a certified installer to administer home improvements under that scheme; and what number and proportion of those eligible businesses have so successfully registered as certified installers.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
As of 16 November, there were 1,196 businesses that are TrustMark registered and certified to install measures under the Green Homes Grant Voucher Scheme, with more registering every day. The majority of those businesses have now signed up to the Green Homes Grant Voucher Scheme. BEIS are working with TrustMark and MCS (Microgeneration Certification Scheme) and PAS (Publicly Available Specification) certification bodies to support installers to get registered as quickly as possible.
Asked by: Jeff Smith (Labour - Manchester Withington)
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 the Green Homes Grant scheme, how many (a) primary and (b) secondary home improvement measures have been completed since that scheme was launched.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
As of 17 November 2020, 40,837 grant applications have been received.
A breakdown of the number of individual voucher applications made for primary and secondary measures are as follows:
Vouchers become redeemable once scheduled works are completed.
BEIS will continue to monitor application data as the scheme progresses.
Asked by: Jeff Smith (Labour - Manchester Withington)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what plans he has to (a) provide support to Greater Manchester's 2038 carbon neutral target and (b) ensure that the regulatory framework supports net zero innovation and new technologies to help Distribution Network Operators meet increased consumer demand for low carbon energy sources.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
The Local Energy Programme launched in 2017 is supporting Local Authorities and Local Enterprise Partnerships to take advantage of the opportunities presented by the clean energy economy. BEIS has allocated £500k directly to Greater Manchester Combined Authority since 2017 to develop innovative business models?(for decarbonisation)?and public sector leadership (for climate change and zero carbon targets) in support of their 2038 target, which are then shared with other Local Authorities. We are currently working with Greater Manchester Combined Authority on innovative technologies and local energy market approaches to accelerate Manchester’s progress towards net-zero, and to make the city an international leader in the transition to clean energy systems
The regulatory price control for Distribution Network Operators is by law a matter for Ofgem, the independent energy regulator. Since the start of the last price control (RIIO ED1) in 2015, around £270m of innovation funding has been allocated to Distribution Network Operators, which is already supporting the move to net zero. In their Decarbonisation Action Plan (link to Plan here), Ofgem stated that they would be ‘reviewing the way our energy systems are managed to ensure they are fit for a net-zero future’. BEIS is working with Ofgem to ensure that Net Zero innovation and new technologies can assist network operators to meet increased consumer demand for low carbon energy sources.