Low-carbon Heat Networks
Lord Porter of Spalding Excerpts(1 week, 6 days ago)
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Lord Whitehead (Lab)
The noble Earl is quite right to emphasise how important it is to accelerate the rollout of heat networks, particularly in view of the present gas volatility crisis. As has already been mentioned, heat networks can source their heat from anywhere. For many years Southampton heat network, if I dare mention it, has sourced its heat from geothermal energy. There are many other heat networks that can source heat from waste heat, mine heat and, as has also been mentioned, the future heat from data centres. So the customer greatly benefits from having access to heat that otherwise would not be accessible so far as a home is concerned. That is why we are determined to push forward with heat networks as fast as we can, and to make sure that the target—that is, 20% of heat from networks as a portion of heat overall—is achieved in very good time.
Lord Porter of Spalding (Con)
My Lords, what risk assessment did the Government undertake before they moved the regulation of social housing landlords’ heating networks from the Housing Ombudsman to Ofgem? The result is that Ofgem can launch unlimited fines based on annual turnover: this will create a push for the big social landlords to take out heat networks, not put them in. At the moment they are controlled by fines levied by the ombudsman, and these are considerably lower than those Ofgem will be able to raise against them.
Lord Whitehead (Lab)
The regulations came in on 27 January, and this move to properly regulate the heat network field was due to the fact that the system had very little overall regulation before and was dependent on some voluntary heat regulation schemes. In many instances it was not satisfactory so far as consumers were concerned. The emphasis on the regulation was a fair deal for consumers, but it also means a fair deal for those good heat network operators which want to play by the rules and make sure that their heat networks are as good as they can be.
Prepayment Meters
Lord Porter of Spalding Excerpts(1 year, 11 months ago)
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Lord Porter of Spalding (Con)
On the basis of that answer, can my noble friend confirm for the public at large, so that there is no doubt, that any tenant who has occupied a property that had a bad credit history before the tenant moved in should have been entitled to have that meter swapped to a normal meter—and that any customer who has been kept on a prepayment meter against their will on the basis of a previous tenant’s history should not have had to suffer that and should be due compensation?
Lord Callanan (Con)
I think I would agree with the noble Lord’s point: of course you are not responsible for the debt of a previous tenant. The only qualification I would make on that is that, if it is a tenant, the landlord owns the property, so the choice of meter would be subject to the permission of the landlord as well.
Lord Porter of Spalding (Con)
That is strictly not true. The tenants in rented property are responsible for their own gas, electricity and water supplies; the landlord is not.
Lord Callanan (Con)
I am happy to hear the noble Lord’s clarification. If I am wrong on that, I will certainly write to him about it.