Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Judith Cummins and Andrea Leadsom

Thursday 19th November 2015 Commons Chamber

[Judith Cummins (Bradford South) (Lab)]

18. What assessment she has made of the effectiveness of her Department’s spending on energy efficiency schemes in reducing fuel poverty.

[The Minister of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change (Andrea Leadsom)]

From 2013 to the end of August this year, the energy company obligation had installed about 887,000 energy efficiency measures in more than 700,000 households on low incomes or in deprived areas. We are clear that the support should go to those in the greatest need.

[Andrea Leadsom]

We are proud to have achieved more than 887,000 measures on energy efficiency. As my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State said yesterday, we will redirect our ECO budget in the coming years towards those in greatest need and those who are suffering from the worst impacts of living in cold, damp or drafty homes.

[Judith Cummins]

With the withdrawal of Government funding for the green deal finance company, it is now even harder for overstretched families to afford energy efficiency schemes in their homes. Too often, poor quality housing stock leaves families in fuel poverty. What funding will the Minister introduce to help families to save money on their increasingly unaffordable energy bills?

[Andrea Leadsom]

The green deal plan was a small percentage of our measures, and it was closed to new entrants precisely because it did not have the take-up that we had hoped for. Some 96% of installed measures are delivered through ECO, and, as I have explained, we have put in a bid to focus our ECO even more on the fuel poor, which is our top priority.