Fuel Poverty

Debate between Baroness Donaghy and Lord Prior of Brampton

Thursday 19th October 2017 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Donaghy]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their estimate of the number of households in fuel poverty; and what action they intend to take to reduce that number.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (Lord Prior of Brampton) (Con)]

My Lords, the latest official statistics show that in 2015 there were 2.5 million households in England living in fuel poverty. Some 70% of the £640 million energy company obligation is focused on improving the energy efficiency of these households. We also propose to bring an end to high energy prices by putting in place a price cap on standard variable and default tariffs and retaining the warm home discount.

[Baroness Donaghy (Lab)]

I thank the Minister for his Answer. It appears ironical to me that a Question on fuel poverty is answered by saying that all consumers are being ripped off. The figures that we have been given may be the tip of the iceberg, as many older or infirm people need extra heating and do not appear in these statistics. The Minister will be aware, because of his previous responsibilities, of the premature deaths due to cold houses and the increase in childhood illnesses. The Government are missing their own targets and not fulfilling their legal obligations on this issue. Can the Government give us some information about what practical steps are being taken to eliminate the scourge of fuel poverty in the approaching winter?

[Lord Prior of Brampton]

I assure the noble Baroness that we take fuel poverty extremely seriously. Interestingly, there are 835,000 fewer fuel-poor homes within bands E, F and G than there were in 2010, so there are signs that targeting the energy company obligation more specifically at lower-income families is having an effect. With the Digital Economy Bill having gone through the House of Commons, I hope that we can target our resources more accurately to ensure that we meet the obligations set out in the sustainable growth paper that came out last week.

Taylor Review of Modern Working Practices

Debate between Baroness Donaghy and Lord Prior of Brampton

Tuesday 11th July 2017 Lords Chamber

[Lord Prior of Brampton]

My Lords, the terms of the report did not include discrimination. Unless I have missed something in the report—I read it last night—it does not come with up recommendations around discrimination but looks purely at new forms of employment: that is, the relationship between self-employment and people working in the gig economy, who may now be called dependent contractors. It does not deal directly with the issues that the noble Lord raised.

[Baroness Donaghy (Lab)]

I welcome the statement that,

“the best way to achieve better work is through good corporate governance, good management and strong employment relations”.

That is an extremely good summary, and if that is what the eventual recommendations and implementation achieve, it will have been a historic report. I have three brief questions. First, one of the problems about our low-wage economy is that we are getting a lower tax base. Therefore, this is not necessarily good news for HMRC; a lot of the so-called independent contractors and bogus self-employed do not pay very much in the way of income tax.

Secondly, there has been increasing confusion between the statutory national minimum wage and the national living wage; people are getting very confused about those two things, to the detriment of both issues. Thirdly, there are recommendations about changing the remit of the Low Pay Commission—I declare an interest as one of the founding commissioners in 1998. One of the reasons for the tripartite success of the commission is that it has focused on a fairly narrow range of issues. My concern is that if these were widened to include quality of work on a sectoral basis, it might eventually weaken the power of its recommendations. Would the Minister care to comment on that?

[Lord Prior of Brampton]

My Lords, the noble Baroness is clearly right about the lower tax take. Clearly, if earnings are higher, the tax take will be higher. It is rather shocking. These are the figures in America: in 1970 the average median salary among the lowest-paid 90% of people was $34,000; in 2013 it was $31,000—it has gone down. This is the problem that all western economies face: earnings are stagnant and falling. Our children’s generation may be facing a less prosperous future than we do. This is the huge dilemma that we all face. When she says there will be a lower tax base, she is absolutely right. The whole point of improving productivity is to improve earnings. It is in all our interests to improve earnings—to see wages grow.

The noble Baroness also talked about the confusion between the living wage and the national minimum wage. She has now confused me so I shall have to write to her. She went on to talk about the Low Pay Commission. When the previous Government brought in the living wage and the trajectory for it, that was a political decision; it was not made by the Low Pay Commission. One of the criticisms of the minimum wage is that politicians cannot resist the temptation to get involved in it. To some extent, the Low Pay Commission has been subverted by politics. I guess that was inevitable. Actually, the increase in the living wage was one of the great triumphs of the coalition Government.