Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether her Department has assessed the challenges for coastal towns and other areas with significant stocks of older housing in improving residential energy efficiency; and whether he has a national strategy for addressing heritage protection, household affordability, housing quality and carbon reduction in such areas.

The Government recognises there is no “one-size-fits-all” approach to improving the UK’s diverse building stock.

The Government continues to work with heritage organisations and across government to support appropriate energy efficiency improvements to historic and listed buildings, while safeguarding their heritage value.

A national strategy is already in place in the form of the Warm Homes Plan, which was published earlier this year and sets out a range of schemes, policies, and approaches to these issues.

In particular, current Government capital schemes are designed with criteria specifically targeting low-income households and the least efficient properties based on their EPC rating.

The Plan also sets out how over the longer term we will integrate those schemes into an ambitious new single scheme which will shift towards area-based delivery, building on the experience of local authorities with more targeted and deliverable investment, and devolving funding so regional and local government accelerate home and building upgrades according to their needs.