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

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to open up the Green Deal to businesses.

The Green Deal framework, introduced in 2013, remains in place to enable loans to pay for energy efficiency improvements in the domestic sector and to service existing Green Deal loans and any private finance providers wishing to enter the market. The scheme therefore is already open to business as participants, although the level of activity under the scheme is very low.

In addition, support is available to help businesses to reduce their carbon and energy bills through the Climate Change Agreements Scheme, which provides reduced Climate Change Levy rates worth £255 million a year for eligible businesses in return for meeting energy efficiency targets and grants via the £289 million Industrial Energy Transformation Fund. The Government has also announced support to help businesses, charities and public sector organisations with energy costs this winter through the Energy Bill Relief Scheme.