Joan Ruddock
Main Page: Joan Ruddock (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Gregory Barker
Absolutely. I know that my hon. Friend is a terrific advocate for Hastings, and I can assure her that social housing will be among the first to benefit from the green deal revolution. Dedicated funding within the £1.3 billion of energy company obligation subsidy will be focused on the most deprived areas of the country, so I would expect areas such as Hastings to be among the first to see the benefits. With her as its MP, I am sure it will.
Dame Joan Ruddock (Lewisham, Deptford) (Lab)
Will the Minister explain what happened to the 30,000 people who applied for help through Warm Front last year? Despite an underspend, they did not get anything. Will he apologise to them for having to wait for this much heralded green deal and will it actually be delivered to the very poorest? I doubt it.
Gregory Barker
I am pleased to say that since I became Minister in the right hon. Lady’s place, the number of complaints about Warm Front has reduced substantially. She will know that there was a massive complaint bag about Warm Front while she was in office. We have not seen that since I entered office. Of course we will continue to run Warm Front though next year. It remains part of a suite of measures to tackle fuel poverty, and we remain committed to doing much more.