Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps his department is taking to prevent people from dying in fuel poverty.

Tackling fuel poverty is a priority for this Government. We will be publishing a new fuel poverty strategy for England to ensure that many more fuel poor households are protected by 2030, in parallel to the Warm Homes Plan.

In March the Government allocated around £1.8 billion to local authorities and social housing providers to support low-income households through the Warm Homes: Local Grant and Warm Homes: Social Housing Fund. This funding will support 170,000 households to get energy saving upgrades, helping families stay warm and cut bills.

In addition, the Chancellor has announced a further £1.5 billion to support upgrades for low-income households, benefiting those in fuel poverty. The details of this will be set out soon in the Warm Homes Plan.

Financial support is available to eligible low-income households across Great Britain through the Warm Home Discount which has been expanded for this winter increasing the total number of households that are estimated to receive the discount from 3.2 million to around 6 million.

DESNZ is working with other government departments to drive better availability and sharing of data to enable us in the future to more effectively target support to those who need help with their energy bills.