Energy Bill [Lords]

Graham P Jones Excerpts

Wednesday 14th September 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Baron]

The hon. Gentleman makes a decent point. There is a lack of clarity on a range of issues. We want to encourage people to get on to their company’s cheapest standard direct debit tariff. We must try to ensure that bills are clearer, otherwise people will continue to pay too much for their energy.

[Graham Jones (Hyndburn) (Lab)]

I am concerned that some people with prepayment meters will not be able to switch to direct debit. What is the hon. Gentleman’s view on prepayment meters? People will load up and pay heavily on the meter in the winter, but budget and save in the summer. Under the green deal, payment rates will now differ, however. By the end of the summer, people may have a backlog in what is effectively a standing charge on the green deal.

[Mr Baron]

That is a fair point, but I would say in reply that we need greater clarity on bills on the availability of cheaper tariffs depending on payment method, which would include prepayment. We are not getting that at present. At best, we are getting generic messages saying, in effect, “You may be able to save money if you ring this number,” but the evidence suggests that such messages are not sufficiently strong to incentivise people to find the cheapest tariff. New clause 19 addresses that specific point.

In the Retail Market Review, Ofgem stated its disappointment that the energy suppliers have not abided by what it considers to be the spirit of its post-2008 Energy Supply Probe standards of conduct, and that they have not always made details about switching as prominent as they might—although some companies have gone further than others. Ofgem is therefore frustrated about the lack of progress in this area.

Having questioned both the previous and the current Governments about the need to do more in this area, I was pleased to see a coalition commitment that energy suppliers should provide information about cheaper tariffs on the bills and statements they send to their customers. In October last year, I sent a letter to the Secretary of State suggesting a solution to these problems, which involved energy suppliers printing clearly on customers’ bills how much money they would save if they were on their supplier’s cheapest standard tariff, assuming different payment methods. I felt that talking about pounds, shillings and pence—I was brought up in the pre-decimalisation era—sent a much stronger message than giving just general signposting information.

Discussions followed and in June 2011 I was invited by the Minister of State to chair a billing stakeholder group to make recommendations about the implementation of the coalition agreement commitment. The group comprised representatives from the Department, from ERA—the energy retail association, representing the energy suppliers—and from consumer groups such as Which?, Consumer Focus, Citizens Advice and Ofgem. Useful meetings were held over the summer and I thank all the members of the group for their contributions.

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[Mr Baron]

The hon. Gentleman has a point, but his proposal goes only so far. My problem is that energy bills are far too complex. I want to set hon. Members’ minds at rest: I do not stay up at night studying my energy bills, despite what Ministers think, although I might create the impression that I spend my time doing nothing else. The essential information is often contained on one page, followed by five or six pages of bumpf which compares usage with neighbourhood usage, and even usage overseas and so on. It is a lot of nonsense. What we want is clear information to cut through the 300 existing tariffs, which can be confusing. We need greater clarity, and there is no better way of getting that than making sure that we have information on a bill that says in pounds, shillings and pence how much would be saved if that customer was on the company’s cheapest standard tariff, taking into account actual usage and payment method. If that information was clearly laid out in no more than four or five lines, we could cut to the quick very easily indeed.

Before I accepted a series of interventions—hon. Members were right to make them and I hope that I have answered their questions—I described the three proposals suggested by the billing stakeholder group: two for this winter, the letter and the generic message; and one for next year, which would be an obligation on suppliers, following research on which is the clearest message, to put that in place for winter 2012-13 . Ofgem supports the billing stakeholder group’s general direction of travel, but I am aware that it is about to publish detailed proposals, following consultation, as part of its retail market review. One measure that it is considering is increased prescription on suppliers’ communications with customers in bills and annual statements. Having discussed that with the Minister, I understand that he has asked Ofgem to publish its findings before Christmas. He and I have therefore agreed that we will wait to see what those findings are before the billing stakeholder group and the Minister consult on whether Ofgem’s recommendations go far enough. If not, the third recommendation, in subsection (c) of new clause 19 will be triggered.

I therefore seek assurances from the Minister that the recommendations from the billing stakeholder group, as reflected in the new clause, will be agreed by the Government, with the qualification that we await the findings of Ofgem’s proposals in December this year before deciding whether to trigger subsection (c). The Minister has kindly indicated in previous discussions, following my letter to him of 8 September this year containing the stakeholder group’s recommendations, that he supported the proposals—something that I very much welcome, and for which I thank him. I therefore look forward to his response.

[Graham Jones]

I should like to speak to amendments 24, 23 and 25, which deal with the registration of information with landlords, and amendment 47, which would bring forward the date on which the standard came into force from 2018 to 2016.

I am pleased to make a contribution to this vital debate, and I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Liverpool, Wavertree (Luciana Berger) for tabling the amendments on landlord registration, as they are important for constituencies such as Hyndburn. The problems that parts of the country such as mine have in trying to comply with any form of action must be appreciated.

During the summer recess, many hon. Members enjoyed the less than balmy summer statistics released on fuel poverty. They show that far too many of our constituents dread the coming of winter because it will mean living in a home that is cold and damp, and the daily choice between whether to turn on the heating or to go without food or other essentials presents itself. Official statistics show that, in 2009, 5.5 million households in the UK could not afford to heat their home to a reasonable level and lived in fuel poverty. My constituency has a worse than average level of fuel poverty, with 7,352 households—one in every five—living in fuel poverty. This summer also brought the dreadful news that the big energy companies are to push up their prices even further, which will increase those numbers. It will result in more misery for the people in my constituency. Citizens Advice handled 104,000 fuel debt inquiries last year.

The worst conditions are too often found in properties rented by landlords. The most recent English housing survey found that more than 40% of private rented homes were not of a decent standard compared with 27% of local authority housing. Some great work on conditions in the private rented sector is being done by charities such as Shelter and Crisis, but we must do more. Last week, tenants in privately rented homes came together to form the national private tenants organisation, a move that I warmly welcome. It certainly has my support. They deserve the attention of the Minister for Housing and Local Government, who seems unable to hear anything but the voices of the landlord lobby. Almost as soon as he stepped through the door of the Department for Communities and Local Government, he declared:

“With the vast majority of England’s 3 million private tenants happy with the service they receive, I am satisfied that the current system strikes the right balance between the rights and responsibilities of tenants and landlords.”

[Mark Tami (Alyn and Deeside) (Lab)]

In my area there is a high demand for private rented accommodation, but many tenants who come to see me feel threatened by their landlord if they raise these issues because, regardless of the state of the property, there is always someone else willing to take it on.

[Graham Jones]

I had intended to raise later the issue of retaliatory eviction and the fact that landlords put pressure on tenants. More specifically, the short answer to my hon. Friend is the Channel 4 programme “Landlords from Hell”, which was broadcast last month. In it a landlord openly boasted that he could act above the law. If tenants did not like what happened, he would take a baseball bat to them. He could manipulate their rents however he wanted, and if they did not like it, violence resulted. The tenants who were interviewed understood this and lived in fear. That is the worst case, but there are many cases where the law on retaliatory eviction is weak, and something needs to be done about that. My hon. Friend raises a good point, which I may return to later.

The Minister seems to be on the landlords’ side, which does not work for a constituency such as mine, and he is being complacent. Rather than landlords’ behaviour improving, it seems to be getting worse as a result of his inaction. In March, Shelter recently reported a 23% increase in the number of people seeking help for problems with private landlords in the past 12 months. Only this week, Shelter found that complaints to local authorities about private landlords have increased by a fifth in two years, with 86,000 made last year.

In Hyndburn, the stark reality is that we have a second-world Britain, with shocking housing conditions that would not have been found in the old East Germany. Private landlords condemn parents and young children to housing misery. As the Housing Alliance reported last week, the UK has some of the worst housing in western Europe, and constituencies such as mine are plagued by this housing crisis. It condemns people to worklessness, as wages cannot keep up with rising costs, and that will impact on the introduction of the Bill.

One measure that would help to tackle the conditions in the private rented sector is a national register of landlords. The Government have seen fit to drop the proposals made by the previous Government for such a register, and that is such a shame. The Bill represented a good opportunity to introduce a register. However, we can still achieve some good by ensuring that the energy performance certificate register records the tenure of the property, where it is rented and the name and address of the landlord. Amendment 23, tabled by my hon. Friend the Member for Liverpool, Wavertree, would achieve that. I cannot see what possible objection there could be to that most minimal of measures. Some might say that it is the thin end of the wedge, or a “landlords register lite”. I wish it were, but it is not, because local authorities would be unable to access the information for other matters they have to deal with. However, it would help them to get accurate information to landlords about the green deal, the landlords’ energy efficiency tax break, their legal duties and other such advice.

Disrepair can take many forms, but in this debate we are obviously concerned with one of the most serious threats to the health of tenants: cold. The increased risk of death for the elderly resulting from cold homes is well established. We have recently seen new evidence in a report by Professor Sir Michael Marmot of University College London about the dreadful damage to the health of children and teenagers that can result from living in a cold home. Children are twice as likely to suffer from respiratory diseases, such as asthma, if they live in a cold home. The very worst insulated properties, those in band G of the energy efficiency rating, are more than four times as common in the private rented sector as they are in the social sector. There are 680,000 private rented properties in England with the worst energy efficiency ratings of F and G. More than 40% of those households live in fuel poverty.

Almost all Members of the House must be aware of, and grateful for, the coalition of 40 organisations that have campaigned during the passage of the Bill to raise our awareness of the problem of cold housing in the private rented sector and that have proposed a solution by championing the idea of a rising minimum standard of energy efficiency for rented homes by 2016, rather than 2018. Without wishing to overlook the contribution of any other organisations, I congratulate Friends of the Earth, Citizens Advice and the Association for the Conservation of Energy on the well-run campaigns that they have pursued.

The Government have responded to this campaign, which is strongly supported by the Opposition, by including legislation that will make it mandatory to improve F and G-rated homes from 2018. This is a step forward, but it is not nearly good enough. Improving F and G-rated homes could have considerable health, climate and consumer benefits, lift 150,000 households out of fuel poverty and save an average of £488 in the annual energy bills of the homes improved. All these benefits will be unacceptably delayed if the introduction of the minimum standards is pushed back to 2018. More than 180 MPs, including many Government Members, have called for the introduction of those standards in 2016. Seven years is an unnecessarily long time to wait, and 2018 is two years after the date by which the Government have a legal obligation to end fuel poverty. In addition, introducing the minimum standard in 2016, rather than 2018, would cost the Treasury nothing.

In Committee, the Minister was unable to give any clear explanation on why 2018 was chosen. He said:

“Ultimately, the date is a matter of judgment and balance. I do not think that we would pretend that there is anything perfect about 2018; there are arguments in favour of setting an earlier date, and I am sure that some would argue for further delay.”

The only reason offered was the proportion of tenancies that would have to be turned over by 2018. The Minister argued:

“Most tenancies, I am told, are 12 to 18 months, so by 2018, we expect that 80% to 90% of tenancies will have changed. .”––[Official Report, Energy Public Bill Committee, 14 June 2011; c. 182-85.]

He was unable to say why 80% or 90% of tenancy turnover was the right proportion, or what the turnover would be by 2016, two years earlier. However, Friends of the Earth calculated that the number of private rented sector tenants who had resided in their current home for five years or less is 80.3% and that the number of people who had resided in their current home for 10 years or less is 89.8%. So when the Minister argues for a delay until 2018 because there is likely to be an 80% to 90% turnover by then, he is wrong; there may in fact be an 80% to 90% turnover earlier than that—it could be expected to occur by 2016.

The independent Committee on Climate Change, in its recent third progress report to Parliament, specifically called for earlier introduction of regulation for the private rented sector, stating that

“there is no reason to delay implementation of this aspect of the proposals.”

It would be a tragedy if the Government’s response to the news that 5.5 million households—many in the private rented sector—are in fuel poverty was to delay a vital measure that would tackle fuel poverty and cut energy bills.

[Mr Leech]

I shall speak to amendments 2 to 6 and 8, in my name and those of right hon. and hon. colleagues on both sides of the House, on energy efficiency in the private rented sector.

I join other Members in congratulating the Department on going a long way to tackle the problem in the private rented sector by agreeing to introduce a minimum efficiency standard and by declaring that it is simply unacceptable to rent out dangerously cold and draughty homes. The Department has gone far further than many expected, and the minimum standard is a major achievement that goes some way to meeting the Government’s pledge to be the greenest Government ever.

I also pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Wells (Tessa Munt) for her work in Committee, to the Minister of State and to my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change for genuinely engaging with the coalition of organisations that support the introduction of a minimum standard.

My amendments are backed by a coalition of some 40 organisations, and I join the hon. Member for Hyndburn (Graham Jones) in thanking Friends of the Earth, the Association for the Conservation of Energy and Citizens Advice for all their work during the passage of the Bill and for supporting my amendments.

The Government have taken a giant leap forward by agreeing to introduce a minimum standard, and we should not underestimate how far the Department has brought us, but my amendments seek simply to take a further, much smaller step forward.

The most important of my amendments is amendment 6, which would bring forward the date by which landlords have to bring their property up to a minimum standard. So far, 181 MPs from nine different political parties on both sides of the House have signed early-day motion 653, which I tabled in July last year, so there is clearly cross-party support for bringing in the minimum standard by 2016.

The Government have given no good reason why the deadline must be 2018 and not sooner, but there are plenty of good reasons for introducing it sooner. The Warm Homes and Energy Conservation Act 2000 requires the Government to do all that is reasonably practicable to eradicate fuel poverty by 2016, and there must be very compelling reasons not to meet that obligation. According to the most recent figures, 5.5 million households are in fuel poverty, and housing makes up 27% of the UK’s carbon emissions—a strong argument for it playing a central role in the Government’s plan to meet their carbon budgets under the Climate Change Act 2008.

Owing to the lack of available social housing in recent years and the failure of successive Governments to prioritise and tackle the lack of affordable rented property, there has been an increasing reliance on the private rented sector to provide homes. Although there are many good landlords, there are still a number who let substandard properties, and in my constituency some private rented accommodation is among the worst and least energy efficient property available.

The Department’s own impact assessment estimates that 42% of households in F and G-rated properties in the private rented sector are in fuel poverty, and Friends of the Earth-commissioned research by Consumer Focus estimates that 150,000 households would be lifted out of fuel poverty simply by bringing F and G-rated properties up to a minimum E standard, saving an average of £488 on the annual energy bill of the improved homes. It is also estimated that that would save 1.87 million tonnes of CO₂ annually and £145 million currently spent by the NHS on treating illnesses caused by cold rented homes. Those are all good reasons to bring forward the date to 2016.

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[Graham Jones]

The hon. Lady mentioned hard-to-treat homes and solid-wall insulation. Is she saying that those who are able to pay should not benefit from the ECO?

[Caroline Lucas]

If money were no object, I would love to see hard-to-treat homes subsidised through the ECO, even for those who are able to pay. We are living in financially constrained times, however, and I am therefore suggesting that we focus all the money in the ECO, which should be increased, on low-income and vulnerable households, of which a subset would be those low-income and vulnerable households in properties that are hard to heat and therefore need solid-wall insulation.

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[Graham Jones]

In these final 15 seconds, I should like to say that there are real concerns in the Bill for the poor people of this country. There is the potential for high interest rates on the loans; the pre-payment meters issue has still not been resolved; and the energy company obligation is a regressive tax, because the energy consumption differential between rich and poor will not be that great, and it is going to hit low-wage households.

On the ability to pay, we have the issue of the ECO in hard-to-treat homes, and people who are on low wages but who have the ability to pay may be excluded, so the Government have real issues to sort out there. The Bill is not clear about doorstep mis-selling, whereby vulnerable people could be taken advantage of, so the Government need to tighten up on that, and the whole private landlords issue has just been a sop to the landlords, not to the tenants. That is a real problem, because a child now aged one might be 8 years old before they get the opportunity to benefit from the green deal and from insulation, and that is of great concern. I rest my 15 seconds there.