Written questions by Coghlan.

What assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of the Warm Homes Plan’s funding allocation on the retention of the skilled retrofit workforce; and what steps he is taking to ensure that small and medium-sized enterprises are included in delivery frameworks for home energy upgrades.

The Warm Homes Plan will create 180,000 high-quality jobs in energy efficiency and clean heating by 2030. Chapter Six of the plan outlines the actions that the Government will be taking to support and facilitate growth, jobs and innovation. This includes establishing a new Workforce Taskforce in partnership with the Trade Unions Congress, the £8 million Warm Homes Skills Programme, and an extension of the Heat Training Grant. I also recently led the ECO Supply Chain Transition Task and Finish Working Group which met on Tuesday 17 March to discuss support for the workforce affected by the closure of ECO. The group will coordinate sub-contracting and unblock barriers to SMEs and local supply chains accessing additional work on our expanded capital investment programmes.

What assessment he has made of the potential impact of trends in the level of funding for energy security research and development on the economy.

The Government announced record public R&D investment of £86 billion over the four years to 2030 and our Clean Energy Industries Sector Plan sets out the UK’s major growth opportunities from the energy transition. This includes £2.5bn investment in fusion research and commercialisation creating thousands of jobs and developing a UK supply chain.

Pursuant to the answer of 16 January 2026 to Question 104371 on Electricity, how he plans to meet that demand.

In December 2024 we published our Clean Power 2030 Action Plan, setting out how we will meet future electricity demand and deliver a clean power system by 2030. We are making strong progress: recent CfD allocation results secured significant new capacity; grid connection reforms are accelerating project delivery; and supply chain investments are creating high-quality jobs across the UK. The Planning and Infrastructure Bill will further accelerate clean power infrastructure deployment, ensuring we meet growing demand while achieving our 2030 goals whilst the Strategic Spatial Energy Plan (SSEP) will support a more actively planned approach to energy infrastructure to meet demand across England, Scotland and Wales, on land and sea between 2030 to 2050.

What estimate he has made of expected electricity demand in (i) 2035, (ii) 2040, (iii) 2045 and (iv) 2050.

Electricity demand between now and 2050 will depend on future decarbonisation choices and economic and population drivers. However, the Government expects electricity demand to more than double by 2050, driven by economic and population growth and widespread electrification – particularly of transport and heating.

Whether he plans to publish a climate action plan that is in line with the (a) Climate Change Act 2008 and (b) Climate Change Committee’s independent assessment of the third national adaption programme.

We will deliver an updated Carbon Budgets and Growth Delivery Plan by October 2025 which outlines the policies needed to deliver Carbon Budgets 4-6 and our Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) on a pathway to net zero. Defra is also exploring stronger climate resilience objectives ahead of the next National Adaptation Programme in 2028. We welcome the Climate Change Committee’s 2025 Progress Report. The government will consider their recommendations and respond by October.

If he will make an assessment of the potential merits of support for (a) householders and (b) businesses to mitigate of the costs of net zero transition.

To reach net zero requires a wide-reaching transformation of the UK economy, which brings with it incredible opportunity for jobs and growth across the country. It will attract investment into our communities and help support new jobs. Accelerating to net zero will unlock a range of benefits for businesses, including new market opportunities, access to green finance and reduced energy bills. We support the UK Business Climate Hub which provides advice to support business, particularly SMEs, to take action to reduce emissions. We have also committed to publishing a Public Participation Strategy for Net Zero this year, which will include how we will support people to adopt new technologies. In an unstable world, the only way to guarantee our energy security and protect billpayers permanently is to speed up the transition away from fossil fuels and towards homegrown clean energy.