Commons Sense

House of Commons · Ministers' Questions

Levelling Up: National Retrofit Strategy for Homes

Tuesday 7 December 2021 · 3 questions

Summarised by AI from the official record, so it can contain mistakes.

Read the full transcript on Parliament.uk

At a glance

Answered 2 Partly answered 1 Not answered 0

Key points

  • The Government's heat and building strategy includes 3.9 billion of funding to decarbonise buildings over three years, with 1.8 billion support for low-income households.
  • 4 million was provided this year to help 18 training providers train around 8,000 people, and 2.5 billion is allocated to the national skills fund for net zero transition workforce development.
  • The Green Homes Grant and its associated scheme received 1.75 billion in investment, improving more than 100,000 homes.

Topics (select to filter)

Questions & Answers

Q1 Siobhan Baillie
Economy Housing Environment
Context

The question arises from the need for a national retrofit strategy to support the Government's levelling-up agenda. It addresses fiscal assessments of such strategies and their potential merits.

Question

What fiscal assessment has been made of the potential merits of a national retrofit strategy for homes as part of the Government's levelling-up agenda?

Answer from Helen Whately

The Government's heat and building strategy includes £3.9 billion of funding to decarbonise buildings over three years, with £1.8 billion support for low income households. The constituency of the questioner was allocated £5.2 million for retrofitting low-income homes.

Answered
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Q2 Siobhan Baillie
Education Energy Environment
Context

The question arises from the necessity to establish accreditations customers can trust and ensure workers are willing to reskill into retrofitting homes. The local institutions in Stroud are uniquely positioned for such programmes.

Question

A retrofit strategy also requires established accreditations that customers can trust and training that workers will want to re-skill into. SGS College, the Active Building Centre and others in my patch across Stroud are uniquely placed to create those programmes and certifications for the whole country so that we can implement the Government's ambitions. Will my hon. Friend be working with the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and the Department for Education to ensure that funding is available for this crucial work?

Answer from Helen Whately

£6.4 million was provided this year to help 18 training providers train around 8,000 people, and £2.5 billion is allocated to the national skills fund including employer-led boot camps for net zero transition workforce development.

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Q3 Meg Hillier Labour (Co-op) Hackney South and Shoreditch
Economy Climate Energy
Context

The question arises from the historical failures of past green initiatives such as the Green New Deal a decade ago and more recently, the Green Homes Grant Scheme. These failed to retrofit homes effectively.

Question

A decade ago we saw the failure of the green new deal, and only recently we have seen the complete and woeful failure of the green homes grant scheme. These were supposed to retrofit homes, create jobs and boost the economy. Will the Treasury work with the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy to get a grip on this, so that they invest taxpayers' money in achieving net zero and creating jobs rather than throwing good money after bad?

Answer from Helen Whately

£1.75 billion was invested in the Green Homes Grant and its associated scheme, improving more than 100,000 homes. A replacement home upgrade grant received £950 million to support low-income households.

Partly answered

Not addressed: The answer does not directly address the need for better investment strategies or preventing future failures.

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