Baroness Maddock
Main Page: Baroness Maddock (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Baroness Maddock
My Lords, I thank the Minister for responding so quickly to our pleas last week about fuel poverty. I welcome what we have before us today. I think it is quite clear, as my noble friend Lord Jenkin said, that unless we understand the problem properly we cannot design effective solutions for it. I am particularly grateful to my right honourable friend the Secretary of State, Ed Davey, for pushing this within the coalition, and I am grateful that he has managed to move it forward. My noble friend Lord Deben talked about “may” and “must”: I think the answer is that my right honourable friend managed to persuade them on one issue, but not on the other.
Baroness Maddock
So we must help him to persuade others on the other issue, the decarbonisation target.
I will try not to be repetitive, because I agree with many of the things already said. I particularly welcome the fact that we are going to be monitoring things as they go along, that there will not just be an end target but targets in between, and we will see what is going on. The Warm Homes and Energy Conservation Act 2000, and the Home Energy Conservation Act before it, were both Private Members’ Bills. One of the problems with Private Members’ Bills is that they are not actually owned by the Government, and so they were not part of a big department getting together and putting legislation forward. Both those Bills suffered from that, because in many ways they were allowed to just drift along. That is a slight exaggeration, but the Warm Homes and Energy Conservation Act 2000, my own Act, drifted so much so that at the end the previous Government wanted to get rid of it completely. When the coalition Government came in—it was one in, one out—they thought it was ripe for the picking. We pointed out that you need that Bill if you are really into localism and are going to use local authorities—another thing I welcome in this regard. Maybe we will do a little better this time, because this has been an important piece of work done by a government department.
I commend to noble Lords the White Paper, Fuel Poverty: a Framework for Future Action. It will help people who have already contacted us because they were worried about one or two items that the noble Lord, Lord O’Neill, pointed out. It will answer some of their questions. This is not the final document and strategy. A more detailed strategy will come after the Bill has passed into law, so that we can co-ordinate it properly.
I will highlight one or two things. Everybody has talked about properties that are difficult to deal with for various technical reasons, but something that has always bothered me is that a large number of the fuel poor live in the private rented sector. Many things that we are trying to do are much harder to do in the private rented sector. I hope that, when the final strategy comes out, we can do something about that.
Some concerns that people have raised include the fact that we are changing the definition, and that it will be in secondary legislation. However, my experience of definitions being in primary legislation, in particular in the two Private Members’ Bills that became Acts that I talked about, was that it did not make any difference. Even though the target was in primary legislation, it seems that we are not going to hit it, so we have had to do something else. Therefore, history shows that that is not the total answer.
Many people who contacted us were worried about what the priorities and target dates will be. I hope that, as the noble Lord, Lord O’Neill, said, we will be able to look into that before Report. Clearly, a lot of detail will be in the final strategy, and we will be able to make our suggestions.
Another area that has been mentioned is how we will pay for this and how we can stop putting extra burdens on the fuel poor when we are trying to deal with climate change and decarbonisation. The document indicates that the Government are acutely aware of the issue, and that we need to look at how to deal with it. Perhaps my noble friend will be able to indicate some of the forward thinking on the issues that I have raised.
The other area that I particularly welcome is the commitment to much more cross-departmental working. That may be something we will touch on when we debate the next amendment about something else. We hear this phrase time and time again, but it does not always happen. Somewhere in the document it says that the Government will set up a body to work across departments. That has been tried in the past and has not been terribly successful.
I will touch on one issue mentioned by the noble Lord, Lord O’Neill, who talked about dealing with streets. One thing that has been discovered by those looking at who is fuel poor is that quite often they are peppered around streets. If you are trying to target your money at the fuel poor, sometimes you do not succeed if you take whole streets. This is not a worry with decarbonising, but trying to make money go around for the fuel poor is complicated. This is slightly disappointing, because it was talked about in the context of the Home Energy Conservation Act.
I will touch briefly on rural areas, to which my noble friend Lord Deben referred. As noble Lords know, I live in north Northumberland, which I think is even more rural than where my noble friend lives.
Baroness Maddock
Perhaps through e-mails.
Our problem is that a lot of properties are farm cottages. I go back to my worry about the private rented sector. My husband is an MP there and sees a lot of tenants. The farm cottages are often in the private rented sector because there are not as many farm workers. Trying to tailor all the programmes to do something to these properties, and in particular to get the landlords to do something, is very difficult. I have gone full circle and come round to the private rented sector, which I hope we will deal with.
I am pleased that the Committee has, within days, got something in response to our pleas last week. I thank the Minister for introducing the amendment.
Lord Whitty
I, too, thank the Minister for getting fuel poverty into the Bill. Throughout the Commons proceedings, and the earlier stages of the proceedings in this House, there was considerable criticism that one of the major areas of concern in energy policy—fuel poverty—was not reflected in the Bill. We now have a clear indication of the way the Government are going on this. I also join the noble Lord, Lord Jenkin, and others in thanking the Minister and her officials for trying to explain this somewhat complex position to us last night. The penny may have dropped but I am not sure the shillings have yet on all of it.
Indeed, some of it is not clear and cannot be clear until the Government, in six or eight months’ time, come up with a strategy and the secondary regulations. I understand that. On the other hand, there are some problems with the approach as so-far revealed. The Minister said she wants to display a rigorous and flexible strategy under these provisions. There is a slight danger of being too rigorous and complex on definition and target issues and too flexible and unclear on what the actual strategy will deliver. I will come back to some of those points.
I thank the Government for getting us here. However, we should not ignore the fact that this is, for those of us who have been engaged in fuel poverty and those who suffer from it, quite a sad point. Although most of us have recognised that this has been the situation for some considerable time, we have now explicitly recognised that the statutory ambitions set, with all-party support, in the legislation originated by the noble Baroness, Lady Maddock, and the follow-through of that, have failed. That has implications for other targets that we set in this area. There is a necessity to be rigorous in not only setting targets but also checking, enforcing, reporting and adapting to any failure to meet those targets, however difficult that might seem.
This is also the point where we have accepted that achieving those statutory targets is not easy. Previous statutory targets talked about the eradication of fuel poverty. We have now abandoned that ambition and substituted reduction, and a reduction that will be made in order of priority. I understand why that is the Government’s position, but in terms of the campaign on fuel poverty it is quite a serious retreat. It might be inevitable. From now, we need to treat it as inevitable and ensure that the new policy, strategy and less ambitious targets are achieved but we should not let this pass without recognising that it is a quite a profound change in our approach.
It is also more of a technologically significant change in the measurement. We debated this and others have commented on it. Some of us had the suspicion when the Treasury, when obliging DECC to look at this area, hoped that the redefinition would define the problem away. Whatever else one may say about Professor Hills, he has definitely reinforced and underlined that fuel poverty is an important and distinct area of policy, one that requires rigorous and effective measures to tackle it. Even with his measurement, which excluded a number of things, we have 2.5 million households in England alone suffering from it. We owe Professor Hills a debt for his report. We are now trying to turn that into some measure of reality.
The first complication it presents is that we now have an English target which measured differently from that in Scotland, Northern Ireland and, probably, Wales. That makes a UK approach to it difficult. Indeed, there was some advance on the basis of the old measurement, which was relatively easily understood, even though it was itself quite complex. It was relatively well established and we were about to adopt it on a pan-European basis. Europe will also have to think again about any co-ordinated approach on this.
Let us accept that the Hills definition will be one of the main measurements. I cannot remember the exact reference, but quite near the beginning of the report that I received yesterday, it says that from now on the Government will establish the figures only on the basis of one of the Hills measurements—namely, the low-income/high-cost measurement. At least for a few years, we need not only to take in the other Hills amendment, relating to the depth of fuel poverty—which in some ways is a useful and more understandable measurement—but to continue to measure it on the old scale. That is the normal approach in a lot of statistical series. Eventually, we may not need that, but for the next five years the credibility of this strategy requires us to look at what we previously defined as fuel poverty, and what our colleagues in devolved Administrations are probably going to go on using as the definition, in order to see how well we are doing. On a purely statistical basis, we ought to retain that.
It is of course also true that many points in Professor Hills’s strategy are not yet fully reflected in the Government’s actions. We will come back to that as we go on over the next few months. As expressed in the documentation now before us, there is clearly a triangle of effects on fuel poverty: household income, the energy efficiency of the home and the appliances within it, and the price of energy. All three are open to government intervention. The strategy shown by the Government so far focuses very much on intervention on the energy efficiency of homes. I am strongly in favour of such intervention but there is a danger of ignoring the other two sides of the triangle and the forces that define whether fuel poverty is going up or down.
It is important that we find a way of conveying the narrative on all three fronts to the population. Fuel poverty itself, the measurements involved and the nomenclature of the various intervention schemes are complicated enough, and we must find a clear narrative to explain what we are doing on all those fronts. At the moment, as the Commons Select Committee said only a few weeks ago, the Government are unable to convey what they are trying to do and why they are trying to do it when it comes to fuel poverty and energy efficiency interventions.
The new definition, as I say, has some advantages. It probably excludes a number of Members of the House of Lords who are on a reasonable income but live in rather draughty castles. I commend it from that point of view. However, although the Minister may contest this, it does not obviously take us hugely further forward in terms of operationally identifying precisely who those people are. It is pretty sound statistically but, operationally, we have no further clue as to whether such and such a house in such and such a town or village is actually suffering from fuel poverty or not. At one point, as mentioned last night at the briefing, the document refers to assessing the condition of housing at a local level. However, we do not actually have a register of the condition of every house—we only have a broad idea of what the SAP rating of certain kinds of housing is—nor do we have the identification of the household structure and the household income within it. I am not sure that we ever can have that. However, to make this provision work most cost-effectively, we need to see whether local authorities, or other local bodies taking the lead on this, can pin down the priority areas more precisely in terms of streets, houses or type of persons.
Baroness Maddock
I thank the noble Lord for giving way. When I introduced the Home Energy Conservation Act, that was one of the things we were trying to get local authorities to do. In the early days, they were quite innovative. For example, Sutton had infra red photographs in its local library which showed where the relevant houses were. I agree entirely with the noble Lord that we need to be able to do that but there are other things that we can do and there is legislation to enable people to do them.
Lord Whitty
Yes, but this has not been a priority for local authorities and in the present period of austerity is unlikely to become so unless the strategy that the Minister comes up with in a few months’ time places that obligation on them and provides resources to enable them to carry it out. At the other end, the income end, the data-sharing arrangements which were introduced in legislation—two Energy Bills ago, I think—have not fully worked in enabling suppliers to identify which of their customers are likely to be on benefits, which, itself, is only a very rough proxy of the fuel poor.
The document and the Minister have indicated that we need to be more targeted in our approach. Indeed, there is a significant element of prioritisation, so if we need to identify, first, those who are in deepest fuel poverty and take action with them initially, we need to have more detailed information, at least in broad terms. If we are to have an area approach, there is a bit of a conflict between that and a prioritisation on grounds of deepest fuel poverty or, indeed, the other priority identified in the document of serious health problems, which poses even more difficulties and is subject to data protection problems.
Given the Government’s emphasis on intervention in regard to energy efficiency, it is important to obtain clarity about the resources being put in by the Government or being diverted from consumers’ bills to deal with this. I asked the Minister whether the Government could indicate the total amount to be spent on fuel poverty determined energy efficiency interventions over, say, the next five years. The figures that NEA has come up with, comparing 2010-11 to this year, show a significant drop in intervention because not only did Warm Front, which was taxpayer-funded, end completely at the end of last year, although some schemes are still being completed, SERT and CESP were dropped and we all moved onto the ECO. We have another group of amendments dealing with the ECO and I do not want to go into those in detail now, but even assuming that the ECO works, in aggregate more than £200 million less is being diverted via taxpayers’ money or cross-subsidy from the consumer into fuel poverty and energy efficiency schemes. I will discuss later whether, even within that, the ECO is working most efficiently.
It is important to move forward on this issue and the government amendments are a significant step in that direction. Some of the documentation is still not adequate and we are unlikely to see any more before the Bill completes its passage. It could be another six to eight months before the secondary legislation appears, which takes us well into the second half of next year. By that time, according to most prognostications, energy prices will have risen, low-income households will not have seen an increase in their income and the tariffs that are likely to be offered under Ofgem’s new arrangements will not have been geared to attacking the problem of fuel poverty. That is the other area that is not covered in the Government’s policy statement, which I spoke of at probably excessive length in our previous Committee session—namely, that you can use the tariff structure as well as energy-efficiency interventions in order to improve.
Baroness Finlay of Llandaff
My Lords, these amendments concern carbon monoxide detection. I want to explain why carbon monoxide needs to be detected, why the Energy Bill is the place that should have this amendment, and to explain the amendment briefly. I am grateful to the Minister for meeting me yesterday and giving me so much of her time.
Carbon monoxide is a colourless, odourless gas emitted when carbon, however produced—whichever fuel it is in—is incompletely burned. Domestic sources are usually faulty or improperly installed cooking and heating devices. At concentrations of 12,800 parts per million, death occurs in one to three minutes. At lower levels, ongoing damage may persist for years. The problem is that because you cannot see or smell it people often have no idea that they are being killed by it. Hospital episode statistics for England and Wales show that at least 40 people a year die from carbon monoxide poisoning, and about 4,000 people attend A&E departments with carbon monoxide toxicity. The inquiry that I chaired on behalf of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Carbon Monoxide found that, based on the Government’s approximate figures, these incidents together are probably costing the nation well over £117 million a year.
However this is only the tip of the iceberg. The most authoritative estimates suggest that carbon monoxide poisoning is much more prevalent than previously thought. The majority of those who have discovered that they have been poisoned have never attended A&E and are thus excluded from official figures. Indeed the overwhelming majority of people poisoned by fossil fuel combustion are completely unaware that they are being or have been poisoned. They present with non-specific symptoms, which makes it difficult to diagnose; these include headache, chronic fatigue, mood disorders, poor memory, dizziness, poor or disturbed sleep, poor concentration, tummy ache, diarrhoea, pins and needles and recurrent infections. I should think every Member of your Lordships’ House has had some of those symptoms at one time or another. The effect on the brain is particularly marked: in chronic low level exposure the cognitive changes result in disordered chaotic thinking, which persists. The changes are irreversible and brain changes can be seen on MRI scans years later.
There have been studies into low level exposure. In 2011 Liverpool John Moores University, working with Mersey Fire and Rescue Department, visited 2,180 homes. Over 90% had a fire alarm but fewer than 10% had a carbon monoxide alarm. They left CO logging monitors in 109 homes for six months. These monitors scan to detect whether there is CO present every minute. The findings were horrifying: 24 homes—over 20% of the total—had CO levels at some time that were greater than 50 parts per million—the level at which symptoms develop. A further 53 homes—almost half—showed CO levels between 10 and 50 parts per million. So, half of the homes had chronic low level exposure, and the residents were completely unaware of it.
A study by University College London found that 2% of 597 homes visited had a “very high” risk of carbon monoxide exposure, and a further 4% were at “high” risk. Its study showed that the presence of an unsafe gas appliance was linked to neurological symptoms.
A joint study by Public Health England and Hackney Homes looked at all the homes managed by Hackney Homes which had a carbon monoxide alarm fitted, more than 22,000 homes. Between November 2011 and April last year, there were 106 alarm activations. In 0.4% of households the alarm had gone off: 29% were due to a defective cooker; 9.8% to a defective boiler; and 25% to a defective fire of some sort. In 10.6% of cases there was misuse of a cooker or cooking methods. Some families seemed to put tinfoil over the top of the heating area, which decreases the airflow and raises carbon monoxide levels. In 38.5% of cases the alarm had gone off because the battery was defective and needed to be replaced—so the battery detection was working.
Public Health England concluded that carbon monoxide exposure in local authority homes could be causing substantial ill health across the country and that the problem is seriously under-diagnosed. CO alarms are cheap. I will not ask for a show of hands of how many of your Lordships have got them in their homes, but an alarm with a seven-year battery life costs less than £20; in other words, protection for one year is cheaper than one cup of coffee on the high street. It is not expensive. Everyone in this House could afford several alarms in their home.
Why should we tackle carbon monoxide in the Energy Bill? We have already debated how people will struggle to pay their bills. Poverty puts energy safety at risk because servicing appliances is less likely to be a priority than paying the bill for running that appliance, whatever it is. Alternative fuels such as solid fuels and biomass are typically more dangerous in terms of carbon monoxide exposure than gas. It is classically thought that it is related to gas but actually the bigger problems now come from other fuel sources.
This amendment is concerned with detecting that carbon monoxide. Today in Derby there is a conference involving 113 organisations concerned about carbon monoxide detection and the effects of poisoning, and they all are supportive of this amendment. Industry and victims’ groups have been consulted and have had input into the wording of this amendment, specifically: the Energy Networks Association, Energy UK, HETAS, the Institution of Gas Engineers and Managers, OFTEC, the All-Party Parliamentary Carbon Monoxide Group, the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health, the Gas Industry Safety Group, the Gas Safe Charity, the Gas Safety Trust, the Heating and Hotwater Industry Council, the Council of Gas Detection and Environmental Monitoring, UKLPG, the Carbon Monoxide Survivors, Activists and Victims Group—which has been very active in this area, understandably—and Skanska. This amendment has not come out of the blue.
The first part of the amendment will require an engineer undertaking any work on a carbon-burning appliance to check on the suitability of the CO alarm in the property and make recommendations. It is not burdensome on businesses and can cover all appliances in all situations.
The second part relates to energy-efficiency measures and indoor air pollution. Energy-efficiency measures such as the Green Deal aim to make properties better insulated. But an unintended consequence of this is that hermetically sealed houses increase the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning by decreasing the “advantageous air” ventilation that is required to safely operate many appliances. Of all the noxious gases causing indoor air pollution, carbon monoxide is the most dangerous.
The co-chairs of the All-Party Parliamentary Carbon Monoxide Group, of which I am one, have been working closely with the right honourable Greg Barker, the Energy Minister, who fully recognises the concern and has worked to try to improve the Green Deal. But the Green Deal documents do not go far enough, focusing on existing rather than new alarms. This provision will clear up any confusion for installers of energy-efficiency measures and will meet the Minister’s commitment more comprehensively than the Green Deal.
The third part relates to smart metering. This will allow smart meter installers also to install a carbon monoxide alarm when they visit each property. It also protects the engineers themselves. Northern Gas Networks and Scotia Gas Networks have found unexpectedly high levels of carbon monoxide when their engineers have visited customers’ properties while wearing these personal alarms. Fortunately, most gas distribution networks have either provided or are piloting the provision of personal alarm and air monitors to protect their own staff on home visits. Industry has advised us that it would prefer that proposed new subsection (3)(b)(i) said,
“gas detection equipment capable of detecting carbon monoxide”.
I would suggest that the amendment as it is currently worded should not be accepted. The wording should change to allow for new detection devices as they are developed. Visits by smart meter installers to every home provides a specific window of opportunity to install a carbon monoxide alarm; that will be a fraction of the cost of the smart meter rollout and will save lives. Industry contacts have told us that they are keen to be involved in this because smart metering may provide an opportunity to save lives.
The fourth part focuses on landlords. We have heard already about landlords and how those renting property from private landlords are at higher risk—they have a fivefold higher risk of carbon monoxide incidents than members of the population in other dwellings. The Downstream Incident Data Report has provided data on this. Domestic carbon monoxide alarms are now required when a new or replacement appliance burning solid fuel is installed and, in Northern Ireland, this extends to all newly installed appliances, irrespective of the fossil fuel. This amendment gives specific protection to those people who are at risk because they rent where they live and are often in a poorer group of the population. It will require private landlords to have carbon monoxide detection in their properties. I hope that the Minister will accept these amendments, possibly with some modification of the wording, because they are extremely important. There is a typographical error, for which I apologise, in the proposed new subsection (4): it refers to the date of the regulations as 1988 but it should be 1998. I beg to move.
Baroness Maddock
My Lords, I support the noble Baroness in her efforts in this area. I had better indicate that—I cannot remember—I may be a co-chair of the All-Party Group as well. I cannot remember what the job was last time. The noble Baroness has introduced the amendment so well and with all the facts that I do not need to say very much at all. I first became aware of this problem when I was a Member of Parliament in Christchurch and a family in the constituency was affected by it. One of the family members died because of a flue wrongly installed by a builder. I have been aware of this matter ever since and have campaigned a bit but, I have to say, the noble Baroness has taken this much farther forward and with much more energy than I have ever done and I am grateful to her.
One of the problems that we have come across over the years—and I have proposed amendments to other Bills about this—is that the Government always say, “It’s not us”, and, “It’s not appropriate in this Bill”. I have a feeling that this may be what the Minister will say today. Interestingly, I notice that there are some people who know about it, because the civil servants behind her changed between the first and second amendments that we are discussing. Somebody in her department clearly knows something about this. It is time that we took this seriously—we have that opportunity now, as we have so many programmes where people go into other people’s houses and install equipment that might have faults in it of the kind we are discussing, when they could easily fit something else or easily detect where carbon monoxide is. Not only should we be doing this, but we should keep much better records; as the noble Baroness, Lady Finlay, said, one of the problems is trying to get records of how many people there are. The worst thing is that sometimes even doctors do not recognise the symptoms. There have been cases where someone has turned up at a surgery but the symptoms have not been diagnosed and they have gone home and died. We need to take this more seriously and to stop making excuses about why we cannot do some of the things that are—as the noble Baroness, Lady Liddell, said earlier—common sense.
If the Minister cannot accept the amendment, I hope that she will help us get something that we can put down on Report that will deal with this once and for all. We can have the cross-departmental working that we are going to have on fuel poverty on this as well.
Baroness Maddock
My Lords, I do not know whether noble Lords are aware but some local councils have energy roadshows, which they take round to the town halls in small towns. They did it in Northumberland. Some of them have a trailer that they take round. I think that the energy centre in Milton Keynes used to have a roadshow, so there are some things that could be built on. However, I cannot see how a Government could afford to put something all across the country and I think we ought to build on what we have.
Baroness Verma
My Lords, I thank my noble friend Lord Teverson and the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, for their amendments concerning consumer access to information. I start by saying to my noble friend and to the noble Lord, Lord O’Neill, that I take the issues around data protection and data security very seriously. I hope that in responding to both noble Lords I will be able to reassure them of the measures we have in place. However, I will address that at the end.
Amendment 51ZDA relates to the ownership of, and access to, the energy consumption data that will be stored by smart meters. I am grateful to my noble friend for the opportunity to explain the important regulatory changes on smart metering data access and privacy that have came into effect since last month. The smart meter data access framework is based on the principle that consumers should have a choice about how their data are used and by whom. The first step is that energy consumption data will be stored by smart meters themselves, in people’s homes. The meters will be capable of storing at least 24 months-worth of historic data. The second step is that consumers will have control and choice over who can access the data held on those smart meters.
Consumers will be able to access their data directly from the meter in their home. Energy suppliers are required to ensure that consumers are able to do this. As part of their smart meter installation, all domestic consumers will be offered an in-home display. This will connect them directly to their smart meter and show them how much energy they are using, in real time and historically, and what it is costing them. We expect other innovative products to be developed that will connect directly to the smart meter, which consumers will be able to purchase on the high street.
Consumers can also choose to give their energy supplier, or anyone else offering them an attractive product or service, remote access to their data. This enables companies to offer services to consumers such as regular home energy reports. The only exception, where consumers do not have a choice, is that the meters will provide energy suppliers with the data required for billing or other regulated duties. One of the key benefits of smart metering for consumers is the end of estimated billing. This data access framework, embedding the principles of consumer choice and control, has been implemented through changes to energy suppliers’ licences and will be enforced by Ofgem.
Before I turn to the amendment of the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, I will respond to two points. Both noble Lords asked about data control and engagement. While I have given noble Lords a broad overview, we also have in place a central consumer delivery body that would be able to reach out and reassure consumers with an independent voice on how their data are being kept. We have come to create the mechanism through which the data are stored with advice from the National Technical Authority for Information Assurance, which is linked to the Government’s GCHQ; I hate acronyms. We therefore know that we have worked with a huge amount of expertise on national data security. The noble Lord, Lord O’Neill, will welcome the appointment of his colleague the noble Baroness, Lady McDonagh, as the chairman of the central delivery body.
The other mechanism, which I have just mentioned, is the data and communications company. This will effectively be the mechanism through which all information will go. It has security on the front and back ends. The information that will be utilised from consumers’ homes cannot be accessed unless it has been accredited to the suppliers who have signed up through their licence conditions to the utilisation of smart meters. There is a huge amount of information out there that I urge noble Lords to access. If noble Lords would like me to, I am more than happy to ensure that they receive the updated frameworks and codes of practice that we are putting out there to ensure that there is absolute privacy for and security on data for consumers. We have worked hard to ensure that we satisfy the sort of concerns and fears that noble Lords are raising.
I now turn to Amendment 51AA of the noble Lord, Lord Hunt. I, like the noble Baroness, Lady Worthington, support the sentiment behind the amendment concerning the provision of energy information to consumers. The first step to saving energy is to receive reliable, quality advice about energy efficiency. Generic advice from a high street shop will only get you to a certain stage of information availability. The best approach is to get personalised advice that is tailored to your own home. This is the only way to ensure that recommendations and savings estimates are truly meaningful for the consumer. The Green Deal assessment does exactly that.
The Green Deal assessment provides detailed advice about the range of options which might be suitable for a particular property, including insulation and other efficiency measures, renewable heating systems and options for generating low-carbon electricity, like solar panels. Householders also receive advice on how they use energy through an occupancy assessment. It is still early days, but awareness of the scheme has grown rapidly. I am pleased to say that nearly 40,000 Green Deal assessments had been completed by mid-June, with thousands happening every month. Physical demonstrations are always a highly effective way to raise consumer awareness of the measures available. That is why we are supporting the development of a national “open homes” network to make it easy for people to see how homes can be improved by energy-saving retrofits.