Oral Answers to Questions

Amanda Hack Excerpts

Tuesday 17th December 2024 Commons Chamber

[Michael Shanks]

Communities are, and will always be, able to speak about the plans for their local area, and to contribute to consultations and planning applications—we will not change anything about that. However, it is important to say that nationally important infrastructure will need to be built somewhere if we are to have the clean power future and energy security that everybody in this country needs. I gently say to the hon. Lady that, even in the most extreme statistics, less than 1% of land in this country would be used to build for solar. Either the Conservatives are in favour of keeping us on the rollercoaster of volatile fossil fuels, or they are in favour of building clean power. Her party used to be in favour of net zero, but now it seems to be running away from it at speed.

[Amanda Hack (North West Leicestershire) (Lab)]

7. What steps he is taking to introduce a warm homes plan.

[David Pinto-Duschinsky (Hendon) (Lab)]

18. What steps he is taking to introduce a warm homes plan.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero (Miatta Fahnbulleh)]

We are getting on with delivering our warm homes plan. We are set to upgrade up to 300,000 homes next year. We are introducing new standards in the private rented sector and the social rented sector that will lift 1 million people out of fuel poverty, and we are making it easier for people to install heat pumps by removing planning restrictions, expanding our boiler upgrade scheme so that more people can get a discount and boosting the heat pump industry.

[Amanda Hack]

Modelling suggests that one in four residents in North West Leicestershire is in fuel poverty. Does the Minister understand the frustration many constituents will feel that, despite being in one of the wealthiest countries in the world, fuel poverty has become so commonplace? Will she write to me with an outline of the elements in the warm homes plan that will focus on delivery for those in fuel poverty?

[Miatta Fahnbulleh]

I share the frustration of my hon. Friend’s constituents. The scale of fuel poverty in this country is a shameful legacy of the last Government’s 14 years of failure. It is a legacy that we are determined to turn around through our warm homes plan and our winter support package, and we will do everything we can to make sure that cold, draughty homes are a thing of the past.

--- Later in debate ---

[Miatta Fahnbulleh]

We recognise that not enough was done to upgrade homes over the last 15 years, which is why we are absolutely running at this. We will upgrade up to 300,000 homes this year, and we are putting in place our plan to drive up standards in the private rented sector, and to ensure that as many households as possible benefit from homes that are warmer and much, much cheaper to run.

[Amanda Hack (North West Leicestershire) (Lab)]

T10. In my constituency, there has been strong growth in the purchase of electric vehicles, but we have only half as many public charging points per person as the national average. How can we secure more charging points in public spaces in rural communities?

[Michael Shanks]

My hon. Friend makes an important point about rolling out charging infrastructure to all parts of the country, and we are working on that with colleagues in the Department for Transport. Local distribution networks in rural areas are incredibly important, and introducing greater access to the grid—including through Ofgem’s approval of £22 billion to improve distribution networks—will enable us to roll out EV infrastructure in rural areas throughout the country.