Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - Wolverhampton South West)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what progress he has made on the distribution of Green Home Grants.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
The Green Homes Grant opened to applications on the 30 September 2020. As of 2nd November 2020, 31,279 grant applications have been received. BEIS will continue to monitor application data as the scheme progresses.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - Wolverhampton South West)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what funding his Department provides to service stations in (a) the UK and (b) Wolverhampton South West constituency for installing electric car charge-points.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The Government has published a vision for rolling out high-powered chargepoints across the motorway and A-road network in England. Today, a driver is never more than 25 miles away from a rapid chargepoint anywhere along England's motorways and major A roads.
By 2023, we aim to have at least six high-powered, open access?chargepoints (150 to 350 kilowatt capable) at motorway service areas in England, with some larger sites having as many as 10 to 12. By 2035, we expect the number to increase to around 6,000 high-powered chargers across the network.
This vision will be supported by a Rapid Charging Fund, which was announced at Budget as part of a £500 million commitment for electric vehicle charging infrastructure. To target spending from this Fund effectively, the Office for Low Emission Vehicles has commenced a comprehensive review of electric vehicle infrastructure to complete later this year.
Highways England has now completed its commitment to ensure there is a rapid chargepoint every 20 miles along 95% of the Strategic Road Network by March 2020. The management of motorways and major roads is a devolved matter and the UK Government is working with partners in the Devolved Administrations to ensure that there are coordinated plans in place for the development of a rapid charging infrastructure across the UK.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - Wolverhampton South West)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what financial support is available to encourage businesses to manufacture environmentally friendly product packaging.
Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The Smart Sustainable Plastic Packaging programme will tackle the challenge of plastic pollution in the environment through the development of a more sustainable plastic packaging value chain in the UK. We will invest £60 million from the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund, which is expected to be matched by funding of up to £149 million from industry over the next 5 years.
This support will encourage businesses to develop more environmentally friendly packaging as well as novel infrastructure to recycle it at the end of its life. This investment will drive research and innovation to develop more sustainable materials and packaging designs, business models which drive the adoption of reusable and refillable packaging, new recycling processes and infrastructure to deliver a reduction in the negative environmental impacts caused by plastic packaging.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - Wolverhampton South West)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what financial support is available to help with (a) repairing flat roofs and (b) other energy efficiency initiatives for an apartment complex for people who do not receive support from the social security system.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
The Green Homes Grant voucher scheme is available to homeowners and landlords for grant funding towards energy efficiency measures and low-carbon heat, covering up to two thirds of the cost up to a maximum of £5000.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - Wolverhampton South West)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what financial support is available to businesses which operate childcare activity groups in rented spaces and who have lost income as a result of the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Government put forward a package of support to help businesses with their ongoing business costs in recognition of the disruption caused by Covid-19. This included the?Small Business Grants Fund (SBGF) and the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grants Fund (RHLGF).?This funding was provided to support the smallest businesses and small businesses in some of the sectors?hardest hit by the measures taken to prevent the spread of Covid-19.
In addition, on?1 May,?the Government announced the Local Authority Discretionary Grants Fund. This scheme was intended to support small businesses?in some of the hardest hit sectors?that were previously outside the scope of the Small Business and Retail, Hospitality & Leisure Grant Funds.
We asked local authorities to prioritise the following types of businesses for grants from within this funding pot:
Local authorities have been responsible for defining the 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.
Guidance for Local Authorities was published 13 May: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance-on-business-support-grant-funding.
Businesses which were not eligible for or have not received grant funding should be able to benefit from other measures in the Government’s unprecedented package of support for business:?https://www.gov.uk/business-coronavirus-support-finder
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - Wolverhampton South West)
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 encourage environmentally-friendly industry and manufacturing in the (a) Wolverhampton South West constituency and (b) UK.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
Achieving Net Zero remains a priority and the Government will consider how transitioning to a carbon neutral economy, creating new sources of competitive advantage in green manufacturing and sustainable business, will feature in a post-COVID-19 economy. We recognise that policies and measures to support low carbon technologies can be drivers of economic growth and new jobs in the Wolverhampton South constituency and across the UK, for example electric vehicle manufacturing in the Midlands.
The Government has just launched the Industrial Energy Transformation Fund, a scheme set up to help businesses with high energy use to reduce energy bills and cut carbon emissions. This scheme will support businesses to invest in energy efficient, low carbon technologies and in doing so help to place industry on a path to a low carbon future.
The Industrial Clusters Mission will establish the world’s first net-zero carbon industrial cluster by 2040 and at least one low-carbon cluster by 2030. To kick start the Mission, we will be investing up to £170 million via the Industrial Decarbonisation Challenge (IDC) fund to support the deployment of low-carbon technologies and enabling infrastructure in one or more clusters.
The Made Smarter Review found that greater adoption and innovation of industrial digital technology in UK manufacturing could deliver a 4.5% reduction in CO2 emissions and over £10 billion in reduced resource costs. Through our Made Smarter programme, we are investing up to £167 million to support digitalisation in UK manufacturing and through which we are already seeing examples of the role digital technology plays in increasing the resilience of firms in the sector.
Finally, the BEIS Local Energy Programme is designed to maximise local contribution to clean growth, decarbonisation, and to help reach net zero targets. The programme works with Local Enterprise Partnerships, Local Authorities and Communities in England to drive development of clean growth as a key part of Local Industrial Strategies and support local clean growth investment. The key focus is mobilisation of green finance to support projects at local level that wouldn’t otherwise happen. The Local Energy Programme, which includes the Midlands Energy Hub, addresses barriers to clean growth activity and equips areas to drive private sector investment into clean growth across a pipeline of local projects.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - Wolverhampton South West)
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 encourage businesses to allow flexible working during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Paul Scully
Since Covid-19 measures were introduced many more people have been working from home with many businesses rapidly adapting to remote working, using new technology and finding new ways of working. The Government is keen to do more to promote flexible working in all its forms.
All employees with 26 weeks’ continuous service with their employer have the right to request Flexible Working. In our manifesto we said that, subject to consultation, we would introduce measures to make flexible working the default.