Angela Richardson (Guildford)  (Con)

Q11. On Monday evening, Zero Carbon Guildford received national recognition here in Parliament, winning the Climate Coalition’s Innovative UK Community Project award. It has taken what is often an overwhelming subject and turned it into tangible solutions to local issues to give people agency. Will my right hon. Friend join me in congratulating all the volunteers, including Ben, Izzy and Mark, on their award? Does he agree that grassroots organisations such as Zero Carbon Guildford are key stakeholders in our national journey to achieving net zero? ( 903863 )

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Rishi Sunak (Conservative)

I join my hon. Friend in congratulating Zero Carbon Guildford on receiving the Climate Coalition’s Innovative UK Community Project award. She is absolutely right that community empower-ment, engagement and action can play a role in supporting the UK’s transition to net zero, enabling communities to access the benefits that it brings, from greener jobs to improved health.

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Jack Brereton (Stoke-on-Trent South) (Con)

Some 97% of ceramics businesses are small and medium-sized enterprises, which means that they have not received the level of support that many other energy-intensive sectors have, so will my right hon. Friend look at what more support, particularly financial support, can be offered to help this sector to decarbonise and invest in energy efficiency measures?

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Rishi Sunak (Conservative)

My hon. Friend is a powerful advocate for his ceramics industry, and rightly so. It has been a pleasure to meet him and his businesses in the past. He will know that our energy bills discount scheme will support businesses with their energy bills through to March next year, and we have a range of other funds to support energy-intensive industries. There is the scheme that he mentioned, and also the industrial energy transformation fund, which provides capital grants to businesses such as his to help them decarbonise. I look forward to discussing this with him and his businesses in the near future.

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