Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Chris Williamson and Lord Barker of Battle(10 years, 11 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text
Chris Williamson (Derby North) (Lab)
4. What steps he is taking to help households improve their energy efficiency.
The Minister of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change (Gregory Barker)
The thoughts of the House will obviously be elsewhere today, in remembering our late colleague Paul Goggins, on the day of his funeral, and I associate myself and my colleagues with the many tributes that have already been paid across the House.
The coalition is committed to transforming the energy efficiency of Britain’s homes and helping consumers control their energy bills. The green deal and energy company obligation have together improved over a third of a million homes in their first 10 months of operation, but even more importantly we have established the conditions to grow a genuinely economically sustainable energy efficiency market as part of our long-term plan to transform British homes.
Gregory Barker
The hon. Gentleman is right. We anticipated that more green deal finance plans would have been taken out by this stage, but we have seen, and been taken aback by, how popular green deal measures have been. There have now been more than 117,000 green deal assessments, and new research published this morning shows that only 5% of people are not installing green deal measures as a result. If people choose to pay for these measures themselves, that is a good thing. The main thing is that people are installing green deal measures using green deal installers and that the green deal market is off to a good start.
Chris Williamson
It would be helpful if the Minister supported Labour’s energy price freeze, but clearly the long-term solution required to end the scandal of people dying because they live in cold homes is a massive energy efficiency programme. As we know, the green deal has been an abject failure, with 1,030 households signing up so far and a 93% fall in the number of loft installations last year. Will he explain why his Department’s policies are failing so badly?
Gregory Barker
Labour’s price freeze is a con, and everybody now realises that it would harm investment and damage the interests of consumers and hard-working families. Fuel poverty is a long-term challenge, but when the Leader of the Opposition was Secretary of State fuel poverty rose to record highs, just as it did in every year of the last Parliament under Labour. The coalition still has a lot more to do, but the fuel poverty figures have been falling, so perhaps the hon. Gentleman should read less rhetoric and more facts.
Energy Bill
Debate between Chris Williamson and Lord Barker of Battle
The Minister of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change (Gregory Barker)
Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
Chris Williamson
No. I will not take any more interventions, because I know that others want to speak in this important debate.
Chris Williamson
No. Others wish to speak.
This issue will not go away; it will run and run. The fact that people are dying in our country because they cannot afford to heat their homes properly is a stain on our national character. People should not be faced with the invidious choice between putting food on their tables and heating their homes adequately. We must do better than that, and, as one of the richest nations on the planet, we can do better than that.
I am grateful for the supportive comments of my hon. Friend the Member for Stalybridge and Hyde. I hope that Labour Front Benchers will look carefully at the amendments, and that, when we form the Government following the next general election, our programme will include meaningful targets which can have a real impact, enabling us to end the absolute scandal of people dying in our country because they are living in cold homes.
Energy Efficiency
Debate between Chris Williamson and Lord Barker of Battle(14 years, 5 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text
Chris Williamson (Derby North) (Lab)
Can the Minister confirm that the coalition parties will agree to implement the previous Government’s commitment to ensure that all new homes are carbon-neutral by 2015?
Gregory Barker
That is an important target. We are committed to carbon neutrality, and I know that my colleagues in the Department for Communities and Local Government are looking to see if there is any room for making the target more effective. Perhaps I may write to the hon. Gentleman with the very latest on that?