Oral Answers to Questions

Alison Seabeck Excerpts

Thursday 1st November 2012 Commons Chamber

[Nick Smith (Blaenau Gwent) (Lab)]

3. What steps he is taking to help households improve their energy efficiency.

[Alison Seabeck (Plymouth, Moor View) (Lab)]

7. What steps he is taking to help households improve their energy efficiency.

--- Later in debate ---

[Gregory Barker]

I am very pleased to correct that misinformation. The green deal finance plans will be written from January next year. The ECO is already in place, while the carbon emissions reduction target and the community energy saving programme will continue through to the end of this year, so there is a substantial programme of work that is seamless, running from the end of CERT and CESP right through to the take-up of the more transformational green deal programme.

[Alison Seabeck]

Evidence produced by the Office for National Statistics and highlighted in the Plymouth Herald this week has highlighted the fact that many more people are working beyond pensionable age, in part because of the need to pay their high energy bills. The last Labour Government put tough obligations on those energy companies to support vulnerable families, including pensioners, with insulation. With only 10 weeks left, Ofgem is now warning that many of those energy companies are not going to meet their targets. What is the Minister doing to nail these energy companies and to explain to my pensioners in Plymouth that they are going to be supported and be warm?

[Gregory Barker]

The hon. Lady is right: there have been shortcomings in the programmes introduced under the last Government—namely, CERT and CESP. We have done much more to drive deployment of those programmes into vulnerable homes and for the super priority group. I have assurances that we will meet those targets for CERT and CESP, but the great thing about the green deal is that it is applicable to every single home. Whether it be pensioners living in rented accommodation or people living in social housing or on their own, the green deal will be for them, along with a whole range of measures that were not available under CERT.