Commons Sense

House of Commons · Ministers' Questions

Energy Efficiency

Tuesday 10 June 2025 · 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 0 Partly answered 3 Not answered 0

Key points

  • Lisa Smart questioned the scrapping of the zero carbon homes programme and its financial impact on retrofitting existing homes.
  • Sam Rushworth inquired about making energy efficiency upgrades more affordable for households who cannot afford initial outlays.
  • Pippa Heylings highlighted the plight of households living in poor conditions, forced to choose between heating and eating, praising the ambition of the warm homes plan.

Topics (select to filter)

Questions & Answers

Q1 Lisa Smart Lib Dem Hazel Grove
Climate Energy
Context

The question follows up on the Secretary of State's earlier statements about upgrading homes through the warm homes plan. Lisa Smart references her predecessor Andrew Stunell and the scrapped zero carbon homes programme.

Question

Happy birthday, Mr Speaker. My Lib Dem predecessor, the much-missed Andrew Stunell, pushed for the zero carbon homes programme during his time in the 2010 to 2015 Government, having brought in his first Bill on that subject back in 2004. Sadly, those standards were scrapped as soon as the Conservatives were governing on their own. The Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit has estimated that, had those standards been reached in 2016, households would have paid £5 billion less in energy bills as a result of living in better insulated and more energy-efficient homes. The Secretary of State earlier mentioned the future homes standard, which is bringing in welcome steps on solar panels and so on. When will the Government go further to reach zero carbon homes standards with a fabric-first approach?

Answer from The Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero (Ed Miliband)

The hon. Lady raises an important question. The failure to have a zero carbon homes standard or future homes standard in place has meant that we have built over 1 million homes since then that are now going to have to be retrofitted. That makes no financial sense. It is right to put those upgrades in as standard from the get-go, and we have done a lot of work with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and house builders to make sure that can be done in a way that also means we can build lots of homes.

Partly answered

Not addressed: The Secretary of State acknowledges the issue but does not provide a specific timeline or commitment for implementing zero carbon homes standards with a fabric-first approach.

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Q2 Sam Rushworth Lab Bishop Auckland
Housing Energy
Context

Sam Rushworth questions the affordability of making homes more energy-efficient, noting that current models only help those who can afford upfront costs.

Question

What is the Secretary of State doing to make it more affordable for households to make their homes energy-efficient? The current model is that those who can afford to outlay some funding then get a taxpayer-funded subsidy, but those who cannot put down those first few thousand do not get that support.

Answer from The Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero (Ed Miliband)

My hon. Friend raises an important point. I am working with the Minister for Energy Consumers and others across Government on this as part of the warm homes plan. We have to make sure that those who can least afford it can take advantage of the huge opportunities of insulation, solar panels and batteries.

Partly answered

Not addressed: The Secretary of State acknowledges the issue but does not provide specific details or commitments on making energy efficiency measures more affordable for low-income households.

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Q3 Pippa Heylings Lib Dem South Cambridgeshire
Energy Environment
Context

Pippa Heylings raises concerns about the current scale and effectiveness of the Government's warm homes plan in addressing energy efficiency.

Question

Warm wishes for your birthday, Mr Speaker—and I am going to talk about warmth, as you might expect. Over the last decade, we have seen so many households living in Dickensian conditions, with dark, damp and cold homes, and having to choose between heating and eating. With the warm homes plan widely recognised as the most cost-effective way of making homes warmer, healthier and cheaper to heat, can the Secretary of State confirm exactly how many homes will be covered? Is the current scale of the plan truly sufficient to meet the challenge we face?

Answer from The Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero (Ed Miliband)

The hon. Lady is absolutely right to be ambitious on these issues. Energy efficiency makes such sense for our country. We committed in our manifesto to upgrade 5 million homes and we intend to meet that commitment. I do not want to steal the Chancellor’s thunder, but we will be saying more about that tomorrow.

Partly answered

Not addressed: The Secretary of State does not provide a specific number or confirmation on how many homes will be covered by the warm homes plan and whether its scale is adequate.

How: I Do Not Want To Steal The Chancellor’S Thunder

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