Off-grid Communities Energy Prices 2025-02-04
2025-02-04
TAGS
Response quality
Questions & Answers
Q1
Partial Answer
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Context
Charlotte Cane raises concerns about constituents who are both off-grid and living in homes with non-standard materials, such as clunch or wattle and daub, which can be difficult to insulate.
Many of my constituents, as well as being off grid, have homes built of non-standard materials—clunch or wattle and daub—and those homes are also often listed. What support will the Minister provide to my constituents who are looking to retrofit their homes to move away from oil and improve insulation?
The hon. Lady is right that, particularly in rural areas, certain house types are often much more difficult to heat due to much older building materials and a lack of insulation. The Minister for Consumers, my hon. Friend the Member for Peckham (Miatta Fahnbulleh), is working to make sure our warm homes plan can reach all communities and all types of households, and I encourage the hon. Member for Ely and East Cambridgeshire (Charlotte Cane) to feed in any ideas for how we can do that for these rural and off-grid households.
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Assessment & feedback
No specific support or funding details were provided for retrofits in non-standard material homes.
Response accuracy
Q2
Partial Answer
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Context
Jamie Stone highlights the extreme winter conditions in Altnaharra, his constituency, where pensioners face difficult choices between heating their homes or falling into debt.
Every winter, Altnaharra in my constituency is the coldest place in the UK. I can think of lots of pensioners who are faced with the invidious decision of whether to switch off and shiver or to run into debt. It occurs to me that the Department for Work and Pensions may well have a database of these people, so will His Majesty’s Government get the DWP to work with the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero to identify them and give a helping hand?
I thank the hon. Gentleman for that helpful point. Where we can co-ordinate information and data across Government to identify people who need more support, we will do so. My Department is currently working with the Department for Work and Pensions to release as much of that information as possible, and we hope that we will be able to make progress in due course.
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Assessment & feedback
No specific timeline or concrete commitment was provided regarding coordination between departments.
Response accuracy