Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of removing from the criteria for the Warm Homes Discount the requirement for the claimant’s property to have a high energy cost score based on its characteristics.

The Government has reformed the Warm Home Discount scheme in England and Wales from 2022/23 to focus the support to households at greater risk of fuel poverty and to provide most rebates automatically. Fuel poverty is a combination of low incomes and high energy costs, so the scheme is targeted at those on means-tested benefits whose homes we have estimated to be relatively expensive to heat.

Removing the high energy cost eligibility criteria would decrease the proportion of recipients in fuel poverty and increase the cost of the scheme significantly.