Asked by: Charlotte Cane (Liberal Democrat - Ely and East Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, pursuant to the Answer of 20 October 2025 to Question 80134 on Fuel Poverty: Ely and East Cambridgeshire, if he will make an assessment of trends in the level of fuel poverty in Ely and East Cambridgeshire constituency in 2024.
Answered by Martin McCluskey - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Fuel poverty estimates at sub-regional level are official statistics in development. Since they are modelled estimates, they should not be used to identify detailed trends over time.
However, regional fuel poverty figures calculated from the English Housing Survey are comparable over time. The latest statistics (Trends table 4) show that the proportion of households in fuel poverty in the wider region East of England, containing Ely and East Cambridgeshire, has decreased from 18.8% in 2010 to 9.0% in 2024. This is measured using the Low Income Low Energy Efficiency metric.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
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 help ensure that the cost of the new energy efficiency standards in the private rented sector are not passed on to tenants through higher rents.
Answered by Martin McCluskey - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Increasing minimum energy efficiency standards in the private rented sector will ensure that tenants have homes that are warmer and less susceptible to damp and mould, while also lowering their energy bills and lifting homes out of fuel poverty. These changes do not require landlords to increase rents. Instead, they will help cut energy bills for tenants by delivering more energy efficient homes.
The new Renters’ Rights Bill will introduce protections for tenants to challenge unreasonable rent increases and stop landlords using large rent increases to force tenants out. Landlords will be able to increase rents to market rates once per year, with tenants able to challenge this at the Tribunal if it is unreasonable.
Asked by: Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of Government energy efficiency schemes in reducing fuel poverty in Surrey Heath constituency.
Answered by Martin McCluskey - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The fuel poverty rate in Surrey Heath constituency in 2023 was estimated to be 7.1% of households.
Tackling fuel poverty is a priority for this Government. We are committed to publishing a new fuel poverty strategy for England which will ensure that many more fuel poor households achieve affordable warmth by 2030, alongside our Warm Homes Plan.
In March we allocated around £1.8 billion to local authorities and social housing providers through the Warm Homes: Local Grant and Warm Homes: Social Housing Fund to help upgrade homes and to tackle fuel poverty. Support for home upgrades is also available via the Energy Company Obligation.
Financial support is available 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.
Asked by: Fred Thomas (Labour - Plymouth Moor View)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether he plans to expand support available through the Warm Homes Grant.
Answered by Martin McCluskey - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
We are working across government on a comprehensive Warm Homes Plan for households to cut energy bills for good. We are investing £13.2 billion in the Warm Homes Plan up to 2030, in line with the Manifesto commitment. We will publish more details on allocations to individual schemes soon.
The Warm Homes Plan will include targeted support for the most vulnerable to help slash fuel poverty. The government is already supporting the installation of energy efficiency measures through schemes including the Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS), Warm Homes: Social Housing Fund (WH:SHF) and Warm Homes: Local Grant (WH: LG).
Asked by: Simon Opher (Labour - Stroud)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, if he will consider issuing a call for evidence on ways to (a) promote and (b) fund the installation of domestic energy efficiency measures.
Answered by Martin McCluskey - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
We are working across government on a comprehensive Warm Homes Plan for households to cut energy bills for good. The Warm Homes Plan will help people find ways to save money on energy bills and transform our ageing building stock into comfortable, low-carbon homes that are fit for the future. We will upgrade up to 5 million homes across the country by accelerating the installation of efficient new domestic energy technologies.
We are investing £13.2bn in the Warm Homes Plan up to 2030, in line with the Manifesto commitment. The transition to warmer, decarbonised homes via the Warm Homes Plan will include support for the most vulnerable to help slash fuel poverty. We will publish more details soon.
Asked by: Lord Jamieson (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the remarks by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage on 15 September (HL Deb cols 1885–88), whether they will provide assurance to private landlords that the cost cap to meet Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards will not be raised, and that a higher energy efficiency will not be required.
Answered by Lord Wilson of Sedgefield - Lord in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Government recently consulted on increasing minimum energy efficiency standards in the domestic private rented sector. The consultation included proposals for rented homes to achieve Energy Performance Certificate C by 2030. In the consultation, government set out proposals on maximum spend required from landlords and the exemptions regime to manage the cost burden placed on landlords and the impact on the rental market, whilst still achieving our ambition to deliver significant bill savings for tenants and lift households out of fuel poverty. No final decisions have been made and a government response to the consultation with be published in due course.
Asked by: Katie Lam (Conservative - Weald of Kent)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of trends in the level of (a) households that entered fuel poverty and (b) excess winter deaths in 2024/25 following changes to the eligibility criteria for the Winter Fuel Payment.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
In the latest annual fuel poverty statistics published in March 2025, it is estimated that changes to Winter Fuel Payment eligibility did not affect the rate of fuel poverty in England in 2024, as measured by the Low Income Low Energy Efficiency (LILEE) metric- Annual fuel poverty statistics report: 2025 - GOV.UK. The next annual fuel poverty stats will be published in Spring 2026.
A very wide range of factors impact changes in mortality. Details of excess winter deaths in England and Wales can be found at: Excess mortality in England - GOV.UK
Asked by: Andrew George (Liberal Democrat - St Ives)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what funding his Department (a) has provided and (b) intends to provide, including through energy company obligations, to help reduce domestic energy bills between the 2020-21 and 2030-31 financial years, broken down by (i) cash handouts, (ii) installation of (A) new gas boilers, (B) heat pumps, (C) other heating systems, (D) solar panels, (E) domestic and heat batteries (including heat batteries), (iii) replacement (1) windows, (2) doors and (3) insulation and (iv) other support.
Answered by Miatta Fahnbulleh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
As the first step towards the Warm Homes Plan, the Government has committed an initial £3.4 billion over the next 3 years towards heat decarbonisation and household energy efficiency, with £1 billion of this allocated to 2025/2026. The current iteration of the scheme, ECO4, runs from 2022 - 2026 with an increased value of £4 billion to accelerate our efforts to improve homes to meet fuel poverty targets.
Government does not specify which types of measures should be installed in any particular property, only that the installations should be carried out by TrustMark registered installers in accordance with the relevant standards and consumer protection requirements.
Deployment of measures under Government schemes are published monthly on Gov.uk: www.gov.uk/government/collections/green-home-grant-statistics, www.gov.uk/government/collections/household-energy-efficiency-national-statistics.
Asked by: Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what estimate she has made of the number of pensioners living in households in fuel poverty in Aldridge-Brownhills constituency.
Answered by Miatta Fahnbulleh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) does not collect local-level data specifically on pensioners in fuel poverty. The latest estimate of the fuel poverty rate in the Aldridge-Brownhills constituency, based on the Low Income Low Energy Efficiency (LILEE) metric, was 13.2% of households in 2023 (Table 3 of the sub-regional fuel poverty statistics).
Statistics on fuel poverty in England in 2024 by age of the oldest person in the household can be found in Table 23 of the fuel poverty detailed tables.
Asked by: Andrew George (Liberal Democrat - St Ives)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what proportion of funding to tackle fuel poverty has been allocated to home insulation.
Answered by Miatta Fahnbulleh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Fuel poverty policy is devolved with the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero having responsibility for England. The Government has kickstarted delivery of the Warm Homes Plan, including an initial £1.8 billion to support fuel poverty schemes over the next 3 years.
There are multiple targeted schemes in place to deliver energy efficiency measures, low carbon heating and insulation measures to low income and fuel poor households in England. Schemes include the Energy Company Obligation (ECO), the Great British Insulation Scheme, the Warm Homes: Social Housing Fund (formerly the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund), and the new Warm Homes: Local Grant.
The Government's review of the 2021 fuel poverty strategy confirms that a new plan is needed to accelerate progress to alleviate fuel poverty. We have therefore consulted on a revised fuel poverty strategy focusing on improving the energy performance of homes, supporting low-income households with energy affordability and protecting them from high prices. The consultation closed on 4 April and we are considering the responses received.