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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he plans to take to ensure that more support is offered to (a) non-gas and (b) other fuel-poor households.

The Government recently confirmed plans for the Energy Company Obligation (ECO) policy for 2017-18. In 2017-18, 70% of the support under the scheme will be directed at low income households. This represents an increase from £310m to £450m of funding per year, under the Affordable Warmth Obligation.

The policy also includes elements designed to incentivise delivery to non-gas homes, such as an uplift of 35% to 45% (depending on the measure) for delivery to such homes under the Affordable Warmth element of ECO, and limiting the deployment of gas replacement boilers to enable a more diverse mix of measures to be delivered.

As a result, the Impact Assessment for the policy estimates that 16% of the delivery under Affordable Warmth will be to homes not heated by mains gas. This represents a significant increase on delivery to this group to date, which is below 2%.