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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, in the context of labour shortages in local authorities for housing maintenance, repairs and retrofit work, what steps he plans to take build capacity to deliver his Net Zero strategy for homes, including the installation of home insulation and heat pumps.

The Net Zero and Heat and Buildings Strategies set out our plans to work with industry to develop the workforce and create the green jobs needed to decarbonise the economy.

This includes £6.9 million for the Skills Training Competition, designed to get tradespeople professionally trained to deliver the Government’s current and future home decarbonisation schemes.

For heat pumps specifically, the Government is working closely with industry and the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education to ensure that appropriate high-quality training is available both to retrain existing heating installers and to attract new entrants.