Lord Barker of Battle
Main Page: Lord Barker of Battle (Conservative - Life peer)
Amber Rudd (Hastings and Rye) (Con)
18. What progress his Department has made on the introduction of the green deal.
The Minister of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change (Gregory Barker)
The green deal is a flagship policy for the coalition. We are making good progress towards the introduction of the green deal this autumn. We are determined to have a solid framework in place for this transformational scheme, which will enable the green deal market to grow right through to the next decade and beyond.
David Rutley
Macc2020, an active and energetic community group in Macclesfield, has effectively used a local energy assessment fund to stimulate take-up of the green deal among home owners and to promote local small and medium-sized enterprises associated with energy efficiency. Does my hon. Friend agree that that is the right approach given that economic development potential?
Gregory Barker
Absolutely. Macclesfield is a terrific example of community activity. That is exactly the kind of approach we want to see followed across the whole country. It will help get the green deal off to a strong start. It is great that my hon. Friend’s constituency is blazing a trail, and I congratulate everyone involved—perhaps he will do so in person on my behalf—on taking advantage of the DECC LEAF scheme to such good effect.
Tom Brake
I have had a very positive meeting on the green deal with Sutton Seniors Forum, Ofgem and the Minister of State, Department of Health, my hon. Friend the Member for Sutton and Cheam (Paul Burstow). One issue that arose was the importance of providing clear information to people, particularly senior citizens. What do the Government intend doing on that front?
Gregory Barker
We already have a lot of information on our website, but obviously the scheme has not been launched yet and we still have some way to go. The level of consumer information will be stepped up in the autumn to coincide with the launch, when there will be a call to action on the green deal. We are keen to ensure that pensioners and every other part of society are fully briefed on the opportunities presented by the green deal.
Damian Hinds
Like Macc2020, Energy Alton in my constituency has done a great job in blazing a trail for the green deal. What can be done now to ensure that local small businesses in East Hampshire benefit fully from the business opportunities?
Gregory Barker
My hon. Friend is right to raise the issues of small and medium-sized enterprises, which will be critical to delivering the green deal at a variety of levels in the economy. We have taken measures to reduce the barriers to SMEs, after working closely with them in preparing the green deal legislation, and we continue to engage closely with the small business sector.
Amber Rudd
My hon. Friend has been kind enough to visit Hastings on several occasions, as he is a neighbouring MP, and will be aware that many of my constituents live in housing association property. How will the green deal benefit residents in housing associations?
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.
Barry Gardiner (Brent North) (Lab)
In the interests of transparency, will the Minister share with the House the benchmarks he has set for the uptake of the green deal scheme in the first to third years and what emissions reductions he has set as the benchmarks for the success of the scheme?
Gregory Barker
We have to get away from this target mania that existed under Labour and understand that this is not some sort of Stalinist five-year plan. We are unleashing the power of the private sector, and as a result we will be far, far more successful than any of these top-down Whitehall programmes initiated under the previous Government.
Caroline Lucas (Brighton, Pavilion) (Green)
There is real concern that under green deal plans there is not enough money for fuel poverty. Will Ministers reconsider the possibility of recycling revenue from the carbon floor price and EU emissions trading scheme revenue into the ECO pot to top it up and to prevent the poorest customers from cross-subsidising rich customers?
Gregory Barker
The hon. Lady raises a serious point. I listened to what she said in the Energy Public Bill Committee, to which she made a constructive contribution, about how we should design the ECO and use it to tackle fuel poverty more effectively. More than half the £1.3 billion of ECO subsidy will be targeted at the fuel poor through various streams, which should go a long way to meeting her concerns about the need to ensure that the fabric of our housing and the improvements to it have the fuel poor at their heart.
Luciana Berger (Liverpool, Wavertree) (Lab/Co-op)
I have listened carefully to what the Minister has said. The launch of the green deal is just five months away, yet we are still waiting for the secondary legislation to be published. Energy companies do not know whether they are going to be ready for the launch, no green deal assessors have been trained, no detail is available on the interest rate, and the Government’s wildly optimistic predictions on jobs and take-up are constantly being downgraded. The Minister said a moment ago that he did not believe in targets, yet only about 12 months ago he was saying that 14 million homes would be covered by the green deal by 2020. We now know that No. 10 is also worried about it, and is calling on the Cabinet Office to try to prevent this impending car crash. How will the Minister ensure that the interest rate is low enough to make sure that the green deal is a good deal for consumers?
Gregory Barker
I thank the hon. Lady for that speech. The fact is that the green deal is on track, and we will be publishing the secondary legislation very shortly; it will be done and dusted before the summer recess. We had an excellent meeting yesterday with the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister in which we reviewed the whole green deal programme, and I am glad to report that we are all on track.
Debbie Abrahams (Oldham East and Saddleworth) (Lab)
4. What steps he is taking to help households with their energy bills.
Dr Julian Huppert (Cambridge) (LD)
12. What support he plans to provide for Cambridge retrofit and other schemes to improve the energy efficiency of existing buildings.
The Minister of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change (Gregory Barker)
I am very glad to report that my Department is already working closely with the Cambridge retrofit project, which is just the sort of ambitious city-wide retrofit programme the green deal is designed to support.
Dr Huppert
I thank the Minister for that comment. The Cambridge retrofit is an excellent programme that will make a huge difference. How will the Government ensure stability of energy and climate policies in the long term, so that investors are willing to put finance into major schemes such as the Cambridge retrofit?
Gregory Barker
My hon. Friend raises a good point. We know what investors want. They want TLC—transparency, longevity and certainty. Unlike previous short-term or stop-go policies, such as the carbon emissions reduction target and the community energy saving programme, the green deal is designed to run well into the 2020s, giving investors exactly the sort of longevity and certainty they need.
Mr Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op)
14. What discussions he has had with the chair of the Environment Agency on induced hydraulic fracturing.
Simon Wright (Norwich South) (LD)
15. What steps he is taking to support combined heat and power biomass gasification plants.
The Minister of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change (Gregory Barker)
We see a big role in the future for combined heat and power gasification plants. The coalition has introduced the renewable heat incentive to support exactly that type of technology and will shortly publish details of future subsidies for renewable electricity under the renewables obligation. Furthermore, DECC’s UK renewable energy road map clearly sets out the actions we are already taking to remove non-financial barriers to deployment.
Simon Wright
The university of East Anglia campus in my constituency is able to receive considerable heat and power from its unique biomass gasification plant, which is the first of its kind in the UK. When sustainable syngas cannot be produced due to the maintenance cleaning cycle, the boiler switches to natural gas. However, dual fuel plants are ineligible to receive renewable heat incentive payments. Will the Minister consider whether the RHI guidance could be made more flexible further to encourage investment in innovative low-carbon technologies?
Gregory Barker
My hon. Friend raises a good point and we are keen to be as flexible, pragmatic and ambitious as possible. I can confirm that the Government will explore the inclusion of dual fuel biogas and fossil fuel installations within the RHI and I thank him for his idea.
Joan Walley (Stoke-on-Trent North) (Lab)
16. What his policy is on investment in new nuclear power.
Alex Cunningham (Stockton North) (Lab)
21. 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 launch of the green deal this autumn will put in place the biggest and most ambitious energy efficiency programme Britain has ever seen. Furthermore, we anticipate that our electricity market reforms will create further opportunities for large-scale investment in energy efficiency projects.
Alex Cunningham
Last year, nearly 30,000 households that applied for help through Warm Front were turned down even though the budget had an underspend of more than £50 million. Will the Minister take this opportunity to apologise to all the families who were left in the cold last winter because of his Department’s incompetence?
Gregory Barker
We need to send a very clear message from this House that Warm Front remains open. Certainly, the scaremongering from the Opposition last winter that Warm Front had closed and was no longer available was extremely unhelpful. That was coupled with a very mild winter, but one message that I want to get over is that Warm Front remains open and that those who think they can benefit from it should definitely apply.
Gregg McClymont (Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East) (Lab)
T1. If he will make a statement on his departmental responsibilities.
Gordon Henderson (Sittingbourne and Sheppey) (Con)
T4. Despite assurances from my hon. Friend the Minister, small double-glazing companies in my constituency still feel that they are being elbowed out of green deal work by larger national companies. What more can my hon. Friend say to reassure small and medium-sized enterprises in Sittingbourne and Sheppey that they will be able to access green deal work?
The Minister of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change (Gregory Barker)
Of course, the green deal has not actually started yet; it will not be launched until the autumn and we have yet to see the full framework, but I can assure my hon. Friend that we have already taken several steps to make it easier for SMEs to engage in the green deal across the board. We shall continue to work with SME working groups to ensure that there is maximum availability of the green deal and the ECO—the energy company obligation—for SMEs, who will be vital for their delivery.
Mark Lazarowicz (Edinburgh North and Leith) (Lab/Co-op)
T5. The Minister will be aware that although the ECO will be delivered in Scotland by the Scottish Government, the underlying legislation applies to England, Wales and Scotland. Given concerns about how the green deal will be implemented, what steps are the Government taking to ensure that my constituents and those of other Scottish MPs get full benefit from the ECO when it is finally brought into effect?
Gregory Barker
The hon. Gentleman will know that we are still finalising the details of the ECO, but I should be happy to meet him to reassure him that the scheme really will benefit the whole country.
Julian Sturdy (York Outer) (Con)
T6. As high energy bills continue to affect local households in my constituency, can the Minister outline what the Government are doing to improve the UK’s long-term energy security problems? If energy security is not addressed—I stress that it is a long-term issue—energy bills will continue to soar.
Angela Smith (Penistone and Stocksbridge) (Lab)
T8. Speaking in the House on 9 February, the Minister of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change, the hon. Member for Bexhill and Battle (Gregory Barker) said he expected to see“steady growth in the number of people who will be employed”—in the solar industry—“until 2015 and beyond.”—[Official Report, 9 February 2012; Vol. 545, c. 479.]Why then have 6,000 people in the solar industry lost their jobs since last summer?
Gregory Barker
We have now put the whole solar industry on a much more stable foundation. We shall shortly be publishing our plans for a feed-in tariff system that really can go forward into the next decade and beyond, with a real sense of ambition. It is affordable, it is ambitious and it will bring real clarity to the industry.
Dr Julian Huppert (Cambridge) (LD)
T9. Earlier, the Secretary of State mentioned the excellent Which? big switch scheme to save people money. What I particularly like about it is the fact that it is based on co-operative action—individuals choosing voluntarily to work together rather than a statist top-down approach. Does my right hon. Friend share that view and what support was he able to give?
Jeremy Lefroy (Stafford) (Con)
T10. What discussions is my hon. Friend having with energy-intensive industries such as ceramics and steel, which are key employers and exporters, to ensure that their prices are competitive with countries such as Germany and France?
Gregory Barker
We are very much engaged with all the energy-intensive industries, because we are absolutely determined in DECC to ensure that decarbonisation does not lead to de-industrialisation. On the contrary, if we are smart the low-carbon transition should enhance our competitive position. But that does mean being sensitive to the burdens that we place on manufacturing industry. We are starting with a package of compensation worth £250 million for energy-intensive industries, but that is only the beginning of a much more nuanced and ambitious policy.
Caroline Lucas (Brighton, Pavilion) (Green)
Will the Secretary of State join me in congratulating Brighton energy co-op on its launch last night of the first community generation scheme in Brighton? What is he doing to ensure that the electricity market reform proposals will properly support community energy schemes, particularly those by co-ops, housing associations and local authorities?
Andrew George (St Ives) (LD)
Further to the question asked by the hon. Member for Sittingbourne and Sheppey (Gordon Henderson), Warm Front was, in my view, undermined by the extortionate charges of a small cartel of suppliers. Given that only 22 companies are so far among the providers for the green deal, can the Minister assure us that local fitters and local suppliers can be part of the programme, so that costs are competitive?
Gregory Barker
My hon. Friend has hit the nail on the head. Previous programmes were monopolistic, did not offer real choice and were not open to real competition. The green deal will change all that. We are going to have genuine competition, real choice and real ability for local players to come into this exciting market.
Mr Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op)
The Secretary of State knows that if we are to get energy security and diversity, we have to invest now in big infrastructure projects, but he knows also that nimbyism, often so rampant in the questions put in this Chamber, is a great barrier to planning permission. What is he going to do about planning for decent infrastructure to achieve those objectives?