Asked by: Marco Longhi (Conservative - Dudley North)
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 for businesses of using (a) hydrogen and (b) electricity as a fuel source.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
There are a range of fuels and technologies that could play an important role in decarbonising energy use for business and industry including hydrogen, electrification, heat networks and biogas. Our understanding of the respective roles of hydrogen and electricity continues to develop informed by internal and external analysis, innovation and demonstrator projects.
We already have a number of policies and programmes that support business and industry to decarbonise, including Climate Change Agreements, energy audits under the Energy Saving Opportunities Scheme (ESOS), the Industrial Energy Transformation Fund and the Industrial Heat Recovery Support Programme, as well as our wide-reaching Energy Innovation Programme. For example, the £20m Industrial Fuel Switching competition aims to stimulate early investment in fuel switching processes and technologies, such as biomass, hydrogen and electricity, as part of our innovation programme to support the decarbonisation of heavy industry.
Asked by: Marco Longhi (Conservative - Dudley North)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what comparative assessment his Department has made of the (a) medium and (b) long term environmental effects of (i) hydrogen and (ii) electricity as energies across their sourcing dispensing and consumption cycles.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
BEIS has undertaken a number of studies looking at the environmental performance of hydrogen and electricity in a number of scenarios. The comparative environmental advantages of each depend on how they are produced (‘green’, ‘blue’ or ‘grey’ hydrogen and renewable or fossil fuel electricity generation) and the end use for the energy vector (for example in transport or heating applications). The studies do not differentiate between medium and long-term environmental effects.
Asked by: Marco Longhi (Conservative - Dudley North)
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 review the eligibility criteria for Government green subsidies to enable more community buildings to access funding to install renewable energy sources.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
The £10m Rural Community Energy Fund (RCEF) provides non-capital grant support to rural communities in England. RCEF grants cover the costs for feasibility and further project development work to bring community renewable energy projects to an investment-ready stage. The RCEF eligibility criteria ensures funding is only allocated to projects that demonstrate value to the taxpayer.
The Smart Export Guarantee (SEG) gives small scale low-carbon electricity generators, including community energy projects, the right to be paid for the renewable electricity they export to the grid. There are currently more than 10 SEG tariffs on offer from electricity suppliers, which small scale generators can choose from.
Asked by: Marco Longhi (Conservative - Dudley North)
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 support environmentally-friendly industry and manufacturing in Dudley North constituency.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
In April 2020, a consortium led by the Black Country Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) was awarded funding from UK Research and Innovation through the Industrial Decarbonisation Challenge. The LEP was invited to compete for a total of up to £8 million in phase two of the competition, to develop plans for decarbonising the local industrial cluster through the ‘Repowering the Black Country’ project.
This project aims to agree a roadmap for the Black Country’s industry to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2040. The roadmap will provide a framework for securing significant commercial funding and investment to support clean industrial growth within the region.
In July 2020, the Government announced plans to publish an Industrial Decarbonisation Strategy in Spring 2021. The Strategy will set out the Government’s vision for a prosperous, low carbon UK industrial sector by 2050.The Government is also investing £147 million towards the Manufacturing Made Smarter challenge, which is open to firms across the UK. This competition will support innovation in industrial digital technology that will accelerate the drive to net zero, raise productivity by 30%, and create thousands of new highly-skilled jobs.
Asked by: Marco Longhi (Conservative - Dudley North)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what proportion of applications to the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme have been declined to date.
Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
As of 20 September, 66,585 loans have been approved under the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme, with a total value of £15.45 billion.
The Scheme has received 142,076 applications. The applications figure includes: approved applications; applications that are still to be processed; applications that have been declined; and applications that may turn out not to be eligible or cases where customers will decide not to proceed. Decisions on whether to specifically capture information relating to declined loans are at the discretion of the lender.
Asked by: Marco Longhi (Conservative - Dudley North)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for International Trade on maximising regional benefits for SMEs in trade discussions and negotiations.
Answered by Paul Scully
My Rt. Hon. Friends the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and the Secretary of State for International Trade regularly discuss a range of issues relating to domestic and international objectives.
Trade is essential to the UK’s success in the longer-term. For example, removing trade barriers with the US through a comprehensive Free Trade Agreement could deliver significant gains to every part of the UK, especially for the 31,600 Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) across the UK already exporting to the US and providing new opportunities to businesses and entrepreneurs.
The UK and US have set out a mutual commitment to rapidly agree a standalone SME chapter and continue the UK-US SME dialogue. We will continue to seek SME-friendly provisions throughout a UK-US FTA.
Asked by: Marco Longhi (Conservative - Dudley North)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent steps he has taken to support small businesses in (a) Dudley and (b) throughout the West Midlands.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Government-backed British Business Bank (BBB) is working alongside LEPs in the Midlands to deliver the Investment Strategy for the Midlands Engine Investment Fund (MEIF). To date is has made over £80m of investments in firms located across the Midlands and includes £31 million of private sector leverage.
The Chancellor’s has announced temporary measures to support businesses during the coronavirus outbreak. This support is comprised of two packages that we are asking local authorities in England to administer to support small businesses. They are the Small Business Grant Fund and the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Business Grants Fund.
The first scheme is a £10,000 grant per eligible business. Eligible businesses will be those with a rateable value of £15,000 or less and thus eligible for relief under the Small Business Rates Relief scheme (full relief and tapered relief) or the Rural Rate Relief Scheme. We estimate that this will apply to some 730,000 businesses across England.
The second scheme is the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Business Grants Fund. This fund is intended to support businesses in sectors that we know are being profoundly impacted and which are crucial to local economies across England. The businesses that are eligible will be those that eligible for a discount under the Expanded Retail Discount scheme. Grants will be provided in respect of each property (hereditament); so businesses with multiple outlets would receive more than one grant and may receive grants from separate local authorities.
There will be two levels to this grant: £10,000 for properties with a rateable value for £15,000 or less; £25,000 for properties with a rateable value of more than £15,000 but less than £51,000.