Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent discussions he has had with energy providers on promoting renewable energy use in rural homes.

Ministers regularly discuss a range of issues with energy suppliers.

The Rural Community Energy Fund provides funding for feasibility studies for rural communities to develop, own and generate their own energy. The Feed-in Tariff scheme also remains open for projects across the UK, including community projects.

There remains up to £100m of support for small scale renewables through the Feed-in Tariff up to 2019. As we set out in the Clean Growth Strategy, we are currently considering options for our approach to small scale low carbon generation beyond 2019. We will make a statement on future support for small scale renewables in due course.