Asked by: Shabana Mahmood (Labour - Birmingham, Ladywood)
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 effectiveness of the mechanism for energy companies passing on Energy Bill Support Scheme payments to their customers.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Energy Bills Support Scheme is delivering, via suppliers, a £400 non-repayable government discount in six instalments from October to March to help with energy bills this winter. 29 million households in GB are eligible. The Government is closely monitoring the scheme’s delivery and requires suppliers to report to Government monthly. Most recent data shows 97% of the payments due have gone out.
Asked by: Shabana Mahmood (Labour - Birmingham, Ladywood)
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 ensure that energy companies pass on Energy Bills Support Scheme payments to their customers.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Energy Bills Support Scheme is delivering, via suppliers, a £400 non-repayable government discount in six instalments from October to March, to help with energy this winter. 29 million households are eligible. The Government is closely monitoring the scheme’s delivery, and requires suppliers to report to monthly. The most recent data shows 97% of the payments due have been issued.
Asked by: Shabana Mahmood (Labour - Birmingham, Ladywood)
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 people who did not receive their Energy Bills Support Scheme payments in October and November 2022.
Answered by Graham Stuart
As of 1 November, 97% of customers received their Energy Bills Support Scheme discount. The Department will publish data for November shortly.
Asked by: Shabana Mahmood (Labour - Birmingham, Ladywood)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether people living in residential flats that use (a) heat networks and (b) private wire electricity networks will receive the £400 Energy Bills Support Scheme discount.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Energy Bills Support Scheme Alternative Funding will provide support of £400 for energy bills for the small minority of households who will not be reached through the EBSS. This includes those who do not have a domestic electricity meter or a direct relationship with an energy supplier, including heat network consumers on a private wire system. Heat network consumers who have a domestic electricity meter will receive a £400 reduction in their energy bills through the Energy Bills Support Scheme.
The Government is working urgently with a range of organisations, such as local authorities, as well as Devolved Administrations and across UK Government, to finalise the details for these households and have the process up and running for applications this winter.
Asked by: Shabana Mahmood (Labour - Birmingham, Ladywood)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether residential flats that use private wire electricity networks will be included in the support provided by the Energy Bill Relief Scheme.
Answered by Graham Stuart
A landlord may be eligible for a reduction in energy bills under the Energy Bill Relief Scheme if they are on a non-domestic energy contract and meet the scheme eligibility criteria. Landlords and other intermediaries must pass the benefits of the scheme onto their tenants in a reasonable and proportionate way. This will help ensure homes and businesses are protected from excessively high energy bills over the winter period.
Asked by: Shabana Mahmood (Labour - Birmingham, Ladywood)
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 criteria published on the Department for Work and Pension website which sets out that people are eligible for the warm homes discount only if they receive the Guarantee Credit element of Pension Credit, certain means-tested benefits or tax credits, whether any impact assessment was carried out before setting those criteria.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Government consulted on the future of the scheme for England and Wales https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/warm-home-discount-better-targeted-support-from-2022 last summer and published Impact Assessments alongside the consultation and Government Response.
The Government also consulted on the scheme in Scotland https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/warm-home-discount-scotland this spring and published supporting analysis.
Asked by: Shabana Mahmood (Labour - Birmingham, Ladywood)
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 inform people who do not receive means-tested benefits that they are not eligible to receive the warm homes discount.
Answered by Graham Stuart
From this winter, the Government will reform the Warm Home Discount scheme in England and Wales. The Government is writing to households who are eligible to receive a rebate automatically, as well as households who need to call a helpline to determine if they are eligible.
There will be an online eligibility checker to help people understand if they may be eligible, and the Government is sharing information on the new scheme with energy suppliers and charities.
There is a separate Warm Home Discount scheme in Scotland. The Government will write to eligible households who are in receipt of Pension Credit Guarantee Credit, while other low-income households should check with their energy supplier how they may apply.
Asked by: Shabana Mahmood (Labour - Birmingham, Ladywood)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she plans to take steps to provide help with high energy costs to people who are receiving non means-tested benefits.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
The Government understands the pressures people are facing with the cost of living and has taken further decisive action to support people with their energy bills. The Government has announced unprecedented support within its Growth Plan to protect households and businesses from high energy prices. The Energy Price Guarantee and the Energy Bill Relief Scheme are supporting millions of households and businesses with rising energy costs, and the Chancellor made clear, they will continue to do so from now until April next year.
The consumer saving will be based on usage, but a typical household will save at least £1,000 a year (based on current prices from October). This is in addition to the over £37bn of cost-of-living support announced earlier this year which includes the £400 non-repayable discount to eligible households provided through the Energy Bills Support Scheme.
The £37bn of support also includes more than 8 million pensioner households receiving a one-off payment of £300 alongside the Winter Fuel Payment from November, and 6 million eligible disabled people receiving a one-off Disability Cost of Living Payment of £150 from 20 September.
Also included in the cost-of-living support is the current Household Support Fund in England, which will be providing up to £421m of support to those most in need for the period October 2022 - March 2023.The devolved administrations will receive £79 million through the Barnett formula as usual.
Asked by: Shabana Mahmood (Labour - Birmingham, Ladywood)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will make an estimate of the average length of time that the First-tier tribunal will take to process an application for (a) a remediation order and (b) a remediation contribution order under the Building Safety Act 2022.
Answered by Paul Scully
Remediation orders and remediation contribution orders are measures introduced in the Building Safety Act 2022 to ensure that action can be taken against building owners and landlords who are not meeting their responsibilities for remediating historical safety defects in building above 11 metres or five storeys.
As well as those with an interest in the particular building, such as individual or groups of leaseholders, enforcement agencies may apply to the First-tier Tribunal for a remediation order to require a relevant landlord to remedy the relevant defect through a remediation order. They can also apply for a remediation contribution order to require the landlord, developer or associate to make payments to a specified person for the purpose of meeting costs which have been incurred or to be incurred in remedying relevant defects.
We are working closely with the Tribunal to understand how they are dealing with these orders. As only a small number of applications have been made, it is unclear how representative those applications are of the likely caseload as a whole. We are therefore unable to provide an estimate of the time required to process an application.
Asked by: Shabana Mahmood (Labour - Birmingham, Ladywood)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what estimate he has made of the number of (a) remediation orders (b) remediation contribution orders applications have been (i) made, and (ii) approved since the scheme opened in July.
Answered by Paul Scully
HMCTS has confirmed that, to date, they have received 2 applications for remediation orders and 2 applications for remediation contribution orders. None have yet reached decision.