Matt Western
Main Page: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)Department Debates - View all Matt Western's debates with the Leader of the House
(1 week, 1 day ago)
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Lucy Powell
I have many happy memories of rolling down the sand dunes in the hon. Gentleman’s constituency as a child—and as an adult, but the less said about that the better.
I had heard about the project to restore the dunes, but I had not appreciated that so many Christmas trees were being buried. I am always happy to accept such a lovely invitation, but perhaps we can wait until the weather is a bit nicer.
Matt Western (Warwick and Leamington) (Lab)
I am sorry that I forgot to wear red today.
If we are to meet net zero, we need to address the CO2 emissions from our housing stock. We have some of the oldest housing stock in Europe, and it accounts for 17% of our CO2 emissions. As I understand it, one issue is that houses in conservation areas and grade II properties cannot be changed to double glazing or secondary glazing. Can we have a debate on the hundreds of thousands of affected homes across this country? These households want to do the right thing for this country by reducing their CO2 emissions, and they want to reduce their bills. That means changing their glazing—it is as simple as that—so we need to change our planning legislation.
Lucy Powell
My hon. Friend is absolutely right. The warm homes scheme and the other measures that the Government are introducing are vital to reducing our demand for energy, as well as reducing people’s bills.
My hon. Friend raises an important point, and there is always a balance to be struck between keeping people’s homes warm and their bills down, while retaining heritage and other matters. He is right to raise this point, and I will ensure that he gets a full response.