Government mulls GHG extension

The government is considering extending the deadline of its Green Homes Grant scheme, Kwasi Kwarteng has revealed.

Under cross-examination by the House of Commons BEIS select committee today (12 November), the energy minister said the government had so far received 38,000 applications for the energy efficiency and low-carbon heat voucher scheme.

But pressed on concerns about the operation of the scheme, including from households who have struggled to get hold of a registered installer to issue a quote, he said there was “clearly room for improvement.”

Kwarteng admitted there had been “difficulties” processing applications and that the government “definitely” wanted to accelerate the numbers awarded.

The existing 31 March deadline for getting work done was set before the second lockdown and is an “ongoing conversation not a hard stop”, he said: “There is scope for looking at the deadline of the scheme. There are certainly conversations about how the scheme is being impacted or retarded by the second lockdown and we are certainly looking at the best way to deliver the scheme.”

Energy and environmental companies and groups have pressed the government to extend the deadline of the scheme in order to ensure there is sufficient time to get the installations carried out.

The minster also came under pressure from the committee over uncertainty surrounding the UK’s post-Brexit carbon pricing arrangements.

He insisted the UK’s carbon pricing arrangements would be ready at the end of this year, irrespective of whether it adopted the government’s two options of a carbon tax or a UK-only emissions trading system.

Kwarteng said: “In either event we are ready whether it’s a carbon tax or a standalone scheme.

“We are in the middle of negotiations with the EU, so it makes no sense to pre-empt those negotiations.”

Quizzed on the timing of the raft of upcoming announcements due from government on energy and climate change, he said that the delayed energy white paper will be published at the end of this month or the beginning of December.

This would be followed a “month or two” later by BEIS’ buildings and heat strategy, which was due to be published by the middle of this year.

He added that the government’s proposals on whether to push ahead with applying the regulated asset base model to nuclear projects will come out “shortly” after the white paper.

Green Jobs Taskforce

Kwarteng was speaking as the government launched a new Green Jobs Taskforce.

The new body, which he will chair alongside skills minister Gillian Keegan, aims to support the creation of two million skilled jobs in green sectors.

Its remit will include building up skills in environmentally friendly sectors, such as offshore wind and home retrofitting, and helping workers in fossil fuel industries to retrain.

The members of the taskforce are:

• Sarah Beale, CEO, Construction Industry Training Board (CITB)
• Russell Smith, Director, Retrofit Works
• Nick Molho, CEO, Aldersgate Group
• Professor Dave Reay, Chair in Carbon Management & Education, School of Geosciences, Edinburgh University
• Rhian Kelly, UK Corporate Affairs Director, National Grid
• Jane Cooper, Head of Stakeholder Relations & Regulatory Affairs for Ørsted, Engineering Construction Industry Training Board (ECITB)
• Yvonne Kelly, Principal and CEO, East London Institute of Technology
• Peter Stephens, Head of UK External & Government Affairs, Nissan
• Tor Farquhar, Tata Steel
• Simon Ashley, SVP people and culture, BP
• Paul Nowak, Deputy General Secretary, TUC
• Alan Goundry, Head of the Energy Academy, Newcastle College Energy Academy
• Andy George, Head of Talent Management, Barratt Developments
• Sharon Lane, Managing Director Tees Components, Tees Valley LEP
• Sue Ferns, Deputy General Secretary, Prospect
• Angela Francis, Chief Advisor on Economics and Economic Development, World Wide Fund for Nature
• Afsheen Rashid Kabir MBE, Co-founder and CEO, Repowering