Housing: Natural Gas

(asked on 21st April 2021) - View Source

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what his policy is on the reduction or elimination of the use of natural gas for domestic heating and cooking; and what targets his Department has on that matter.


Answered by
Anne-Marie Trevelyan Portrait
Anne-Marie Trevelyan
Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
This question was answered on 29th April 2021

As set out in the Energy White Paper, the Government will provide a clear path for moving away from fossil fuels, including natural gas, in homes over the next fifteen years as consumers replace their appliances.

By the mid-2030s, we expect all newly installed heating systems to be low carbon or to be appliances that we are confident can be converted to a clean fuel supply. In order to achieve this ambition, we are moving forward with plans to deploy low carbon technologies, having set a target for 600,000 heat pump installations per year by 2028. We are also continuing to support research and development projects to help determine the feasibility of using low carbon hydrogen for domestic purposes including trials planned throughout the decade.

For new homes, the Government is introducing the Future Homes Standard by 2025. We expect that homes built to the Future Homes Standard will have carbon dioxide emissions 75-80% lower than those built to current Building Regulations standards, which means they will be fit for the future, with low carbon heating and very high fabric standards. In order to support this, we will be consulting on whether it is appropriate to end gas grid connections to new homes.

We will be publishing a Heat and Buildings Strategy in due course, which will set out the immediate actions we will take for reducing emissions from buildings.

Reticulating Splines