Fuel Poverty

Debate between Albert Owen and Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown

Wednesday 19th January 2011 Westminster Hall

[Albert Owen (Ynys Môn) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Hexham (Guy Opperman), who made an important point about off-grid supply. Before I touch on that matter, I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Islwyn (Chris Evans) on proposing and sponsoring this debate. Given the time that he has been in this House, tribute should be paid to him for the way in which he has battled with this matter on behalf of vulnerable people—Lord Kinnock and Lord Touhig in the other place also have a strong record on standing up for the vulnerable. I welcome my hon. Friend’s contribution.

I pay tribute to the Energy and Climate Change Committee, the report of which many hon. Members must have read. I am a current member of the Committee and cannot take any credit for the 2009-10 Session. It conducted an excellent inquiry into fuel poverty, and two members of that Committee are here today—the Minister himself and the hon. Member for West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine (Sir Robert Smith). I pay tribute to them for their work and to the organisations and agencies that have worked long and hard to alleviate fuel poverty in our country.

In his opening remarks, my hon. Friend the Member for Islwyn mentioned Macmillan Cancer Support, which is carrying out pioneering work on identifying the hardships that are suffered by people with terminal cancer, and Consumer Focus. I will not make many political points today, but I will enhance some of the points that have already been made.

I am sure that the Minister agrees that the previous Government were right to give such a high priority to fuel poverty. Although the target for 2010 was not met, it was a bold one—to reduce the fuel poverty in England of vulnerable households—and the Government were right to set it. The Committee’s 2009-10 report said that average domestic fuel prices pushed the Government off their target. According to the Fuel Poverty Advisory Group, some joint electricity and gas bills went up by as much as 125% during the period from 2003 to 2008. The hon. Member for West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine has said that we cannot rely on just keeping prices down, but we cannot turn a blind eye to such rises either. We need to keep our foot on the pedal and keep the pressure on the energy companies that have been making excessive profits, which is why this Ofgem inquiry is so important. We must continue to work with the Minister, the Government and the devolved Administrations on the matter.

[Dr McCrea]

Is the hon. Gentleman aware of the appalling statistics on fuel poverty in Northern Ireland? For example, National Energy Action has found that in Craigavon borough some 44% of households are unable adequately to heat their homes. In Magherafelt and Ballymoney, there is 40% fuel poverty. We must not forget that behind every one of those statistics is real human hurt.

[Albert Owen]

The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right. I was not aware of those specific statistics. The hon. Member for Hexham was right to say that this matter affects not just parts of the country but all the country. We all have semi-rural and rural areas in our constituencies. Indeed, I represent a periphery area, which is something that I shall discuss in more detail later. Such areas face a double whammy in that they also have to get in fuel supplies. Cumbria faces such a situation, so I agree with the hon. Member for South Antrim. What connects us all across the political divide is that we are talking about not only statistics but real people. We are talking about how we can alleviate hardship for people. Indeed it is a common endeavour of all political parties to do that, although we disagree on the mechanisms by which to achieve it.

Earlier, I referred to how it is essential that we work with the devolved Administrations. I have been working with the Welsh Assembly Government on delivering energy efficiency, and they have a good record in that regard. Although provision is patchy across many parts of Wales, there is, as my hon. Friend the Member for Islwyn has highlighted, some good work being done by organisations in the areas of energy efficiency and loft insulation. None the less, we need a mechanism to deal with hard-to-treat properties. Some older rural properties do not even have proper insulation in the foundations, let alone in the walls, windows and roofs.