To ask the Minister for the Economy what incentives he will offer to encourage people to reduce fossil fuel reliance in the home.

My Department is in the process of finalising a new Energy Strategy for publication, subject to Executive approval, in the coming weeks. This Strategy will set out the Executive’s vision of net zero carbon and affordable energy.

Almost, two out of every three homes in Northern Ireland are currently heated by fossil fuel heating oil, with natural gas providing heat for the majority of the rest. This is very different to GB, where most homes are connected to the gas network and fewer than five percent rely on home heating oil. Our reliance on these fossil fuels to heat our homes leaves us vulnerable to rapid cost increases, linked to price spikes in the global energy market.

The new Energy Strategy will set out the pathway for eliminating our reliance on imported fossil fuels and support the expansion of secure, locally sourced and sustainable low carbon energy sources.

My Department’s Energy Strategy Policy Options consultation, which closed in July, included a proposal to introduce a low carbon heat capital grant scheme, similar to the recently announced Boiler Upgrade Scheme in England and Wales that is planned for April 2022. Responses to the consultation welcomed the proposal. Officials are developing the details for such initiatives across the heat, power and transport sectors to ensure that, any taxpayer support is used efficiently and effectively and, two, any support from the UK Government that applies across the whole of the UK, such as the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation, is accessed by Northern Ireland consumers.