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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to retrofitting existing buildings to make them more energy efficient.

The Government has a number of policies and proposals to improve the energy performance of buildings, for example:

• In his Summer Economic Update, my Rt. Hon. Friend Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer announced a £2bn Green Home Grant scheme that will support homeowners and landlords in England to improve the energy efficiency of their properties, reducing energy bills and carbon emissions, and supporting a green economic recovery. The funding will be spent on paying for accredited tradespeople to install a range of measures, for example insulation, to improve the energy performance of their homes. Further detail on the range of measures will be announced in the coming days, before the full launch.
• The Energy Company Obligation (ECO), which installs energy efficiency measures is funded at £640 million per year, is now entirely focused on providing support to low income, vulnerable and?fuel poor households.
• The Private Rented Sector Minimum standard regulations introduced on 1?April 2018 will improve the energy performance of rented properties. The regulations require landlords of domestic and non-domestic rental properties to bring their properties to EPC Band E or above. We recently consulted on raising the minimum energy standards for non-domestic privately rented properties to meet a preferred target of EPC B by 2030, and plan to publish the Government Response later this year. We will consult on tightening the minimum energy standards for domestic privately rented properties in due course.
• Public sector organisations can access the funding for decarbonisation projects, including certain retrofits through the Public Sector Energy?Efficiency?Loan Scheme. The capital pot for England stands £385 million by the end of 2020/21.
• The Government is planning to publish a Heat and Buildings Strategy in due course, which will set out the immediate actions we will take for reducing emissions from buildings.?These actions include the deployment of energy efficiency measures and low carbon heating as part of an ambitious programme of work required to enable key strategic decisions on how we achieve the mass transition to low-carbon heat and set us on a path to decarbonising all homes and buildings.