To ask the Minister for the Economy (i) for an update on any available or planned schemes to encourage and support the use of renewable energy or energy efficiency when new houses are being built; and (ii) for his assessment of such schemes in the rest of the UK and Ireland and how Northern Ireland could benefit from this.

The Department of Finance lead Building regulations in the North of Ireland which is the primary policy area overseeing energy performance in new buildings. The Executive’s Energy Strategy contains a phased plan to introduce uplifts to these regulations which will improve minimum standards with respect to carbon emissions and energy efficiency when building work is being carried out.

At present, the Department for the Economy has no intention of incentivising renewable energy in new buildings as it expects the adoption of renewable energies to be driven through the 2022 Building Regulation change, with future uplifts expected to be more stringent. Incentivising adoption of renewable technology or energy efficiency improvements is extremely challenging where regulation exists in this way due to government guidance on Additionality and the need to assess the additional impacts of financial interventions.