Oral Answers to Questions Debate

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Oral Answers to Questions

Mike Weir Excerpts
Thursday 3rd April 2014

(10 years, 1 month ago)

Commons Chamber
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Lord Barker of Battle Portrait Gregory Barker
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The hon. Lady raises a valid point. Frankly, successive Governments have failed to act sufficiently for park home residents. Although the measures that we have taken move the agenda on, we accept that there is more to do, and we want to do more to help park home residents. Providing better information and support is part of that strategy, and we are making more information available to residents. We are looking to see what further steps we can take to help to insulate the homes of park home residents.

Mike Weir Portrait Mr Mike Weir (Angus) (SNP)
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One problem with energy in many park homes is that the supply is in the name of the operator of the site, who then sells on the energy to the tenants. One quirk of that is that under the warm home discount the name of the tenant must be on the bill, and it is not in these cases, so although these tenants would otherwise qualify, they do not in fact get the warm home discount. Will the Minister look at that and see whether there is a way around that anomaly?

Lord Barker of Battle Portrait Gregory Barker
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I fully accept the hon. Gentleman’s point. That has made it difficult for successive Governments to reach out and act effectively to help park home residents. We are determined to try to crack this, and we are looking carefully at exactly the point he makes.