Asked by: Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour - Salford and Eccles)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what advice the Government has received from SAGE on the date of reopening for tattoo parlours, nail and beauty salons, massage therapists, reflexologists and other close contact services.
Answered by Paul Scully
Our approach to the types of businesses that can reopen is guided by the scientific and medical advice. SAGE provides world-leading scientific advice to the Government. However, making any changes depends on us continuing to meet the five tests.
We have now provided other close contact services like tattoo parlours, nail and beauty salons, massage therapists and reflexologists in England, except Leicester, with the certainty they need to reopen from Monday 13 July, subject to them following the COVID-secure guidelines.
Asked by: Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour - Salford and Eccles)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what representations the Government has received from representatives of industry organisations on the date of reopening for tattoo parlours, nail and beauty salons, massage therapists, reflexologists and other close contact services.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Close Contact Services taskforce comprised stakeholders from a cross-section of the sector, including representative organisations. We consulted these stakeholders due to their expertise and real-life knowledge and experience of the challenges faced by the industry during the COVID-19 outbreak.
This taskforce was responsible for developing guidance to help businesses in this sector prepare to reopen safely; it was not focused on when a return to work might be brought about.
Representations have included:
We have now provided other close contact services like tattoo parlours, nail and beauty salons, massage therapists and reflexologists in England, except Leicester, with the certainty they need to reopen from Monday 13 July, subject to them following the COVID-secure guidelines.
Asked by: Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour - Salford and Eccles)
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 offer additional financial support to people working in tattoo parlours, nail and beauty salons, massage therapy, reflexology and other close contact services in the event that a date for reopening can not yet be confirmed.
Answered by Paul Scully
Close contact services in England, except Leicester, have been able to reopen from Monday 13 July, subject to them following the COVID-secure guidelines.
The Government has introduced a comprehensive package of measures to support businesses through this difficult period, including Government-backed loan schemes providing facilities of between £2000 and £200 million, which will run for an initial period of six months.
The schemes offer generous terms to help firms manage debts: under the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS) and Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS) Government covers any interest and lender-levied fees for the first 12 months.
Additionally, under BBLS no repayments are due for the first 12 months, and interest is capped at 2.5%. Businesses can also access support through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, deferral of VAT and income tax payment, grant funding for small businesses, and more.
Asked by: Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour - Salford and Eccles)
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 decarbonise the (a) electricity and (b) heating sectors.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
In 2019, the Government set a legally binding-target to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions from across the UK economy by 2050. The Government has introduced many initiatives to decarbonise and increase the supply of renewable energy production in the UK and have already made great strides forward. Over 50% of our power now comes from low carbon sources and coal is all but being eliminated from the mix.
Earlier this month, the Government announced that onshore wind, solar and other established technologies, will be eligible for the next Contracts for Difference (CfD) allocation round in 2021. In March 2019, the Government published the Offshore Wind Sector Deal, which will build on the United Kingdom’s global leadership in offshore wind by working with the Sector to increase productivity and develop new offshore wind technologies. The Sector Deal also commits to increasing diversity in the sector, with the ambition of increasing the percentage of women and people from BAME backgrounds employed in offshore wind.
The Government also announced an investment of £800 million to deploy the first?carbon capture?storage (CCS) cluster by the mid-2020s. We are supporting wider industrial decarbonisation by investing £500 million to support energy-intensive industries adopt low-carbon?technologies, for which CCS will play a key part.
We also have an ambitious programme of work already underway to support heat decarbonisation. In the Budget we announced our intention to extend the Domestic Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) for 12 months, ahead of the launch of a new Clean Heat Grant scheme. We also announced a third allocation of Tariff Guarantees for the Non-Domestic RHI to continue support for large-scale plants which require investment certainty to proceed. This will help ensure continuous support before launch of the new Green Gas support scheme
We are investing up to £320m, through grants and loans, to accelerate the growth of the UK heat networks market through the Heat Networks Investment Project and have launched the £16.5 million Electrification of Heat Demonstration Project, to demonstrate the feasibility of a large-scale transition to electrification of heat in Great Britain. We have announced spending of up to £121 million on hydrogen innovation and working with stakeholders to develop a comprehensive programme of work to demonstrate the technical and practical feasibility of using hydrogen in place of natural gas for heating.
Asked by: Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour - Salford and Eccles)
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 encourage homeowners to invest in energy efficiency; and what incentives the Government is providing to improve energy efficiency in homes.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
In the Clean Growth Strategy, Government set an aspiration for as many homes as possible to be Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) Band C by 2035 and is developing a suite of mutually supporting policies and measures that will help deliver this:
Our current Energy Company Obligation (ECO) scheme and its successor will drive £6bn of additional investment to support energy improvements in low-income, vulnerable and fuel poor households between 2018 and 2028.
In order to improve rented properties, we introduced the Private Rented Sector Minimum standard regulations on 1?April 2018. The regulations require landlords to bring their properties to EPC Band E or above. We will consult on tightening the minimum energy standards in due course.
We have also committed to consult on requirements for mortgage lenders to help households improve the energy efficiency of the homes they lend to and last summer we launched the £5m Green Home Finance Innovation Fund to support the development of green finance products.
In addition, we have launched Simple Energy Advice, a digital platform offering impartial and tailored advice for consumers on how to make their homes more energy efficient.
Asked by: Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour - Salford and Eccles)
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 is taking to improve the energy efficiency of housing for fuel poor households.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
The Energy Company Obligation is worth £640m per year and since December 2018 has been focused on upgrading the homes of low income and vulnerable households.
In April 2018, we introduced for the first time a minimum energy efficiency standard of EPC Band E for private rented sector properties, with all private rented properties required to meet, or exceed, this standard by 1 April 2020.
In 2019, we launched Simple Energy Advice, a new digital and phoneline service to provide homeowners with impartial and tailored advice on how to cut their energy bills and make their homes greener, as well as information on any available financial support.
The latest fuel poverty statistics showed that there are 800,000 fewer fuel poor households living in the least efficient homes – Bands E, F and G – compared to 2010.
The Government will detail its future plans to tackle fuel poverty in due course.
Asked by: Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour - Salford and Eccles)
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 cost savings to the NHS of improving all housing to EPC Band C.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
Understanding the benefits of improving the energy efficiency of homes to both householder health, and to the NHS is of great value. The benefits to households’ health from improving their homes’ thermal performance are already included in our impact assessments where relevant, and we are currently undertaking a study to enable us to quantify the cost savings to the health service of improving the energy efficiency of homes.
Asked by: Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour - Salford and Eccles)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many homes the Government plans to upgrade to EPC Band C by 2030; and whether the Government has targets for such upgrades.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
In the Clean Growth Strategy, Government set an aspiration for as many homes as possible to be EPC Band C by 2035 where practical, cost-effective and affordable, with an earlier target of 2030 for homes in fuel poverty. Good progress has already been made, with 34% of homes in England at Band C or above. This is an increase from 7% in 2007.