Oral Answers to Questions

Lord Beamish Excerpts

Thursday 24th March 2011 Commons Chamber

[Chris Huhne]

The reasons for the carbon price floor were set out clearly by the Chancellor. We need to send out clear signals to investors about the transition to the low-carbon economy. This measure will do that, and it will also, operating within the power sector, ensure that we use low-carbon sources of electricity through the whole process and the transition rather than merely using high-carbon ones. It is an important part of our transition to a low-carbon economy.

[Mr Kevan Jones (North Durham) (Lab)]

7. Whether he plans to bring forward proposals to encourage households to take up the green deal.

[The Minister of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change (Gregory Barker)]

The green deal will be a real game changer, but the Government fully recognise that the deal might need to provide additional drivers if we are to achieve the full scale of our ambitions to retrofit more than 14 million homes by 2020. We are working closely with a range of stakeholders to identify additional triggers that will steer customers towards the green deal and in the Energy Bill we are seeking powers to require changes to poorly insulated private rented accommodation.

[Mr Jones]

What measures will the Minister use to assess the effectiveness of the green deal, particularly in the light of the fact that he is not linking it to the UK’s carbon reduction targets?

[Gregory Barker]

The green deal is one of a number of tools, but clearly its effectiveness will be tested by the number of homes we manage to insulate and bring up to a decent standard. We have said that our ambition is 14 million homes by 2020. Clearly, that is the huge target that we must meet if we are to meet our carbon budgets.