Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, if she will make it her policy to commit her Department to a long-term energy efficiency programme for buildings including the provision of solid wall insulation during this Parliament in line with the recommendations of the Committee on Climate Change set out in its 2015 Progress Report to Parliament.

The Government is committed to working closely with industry and consumer groups on a new value for money approach to the future policy framework for energy efficiency, learning lessons from past approaches. Alongside its specific manifesto commitment of supporting low cost measures on energy efficiency with the goal of insulating a million more homes over the next five years, supporting our commitment to tackle fuel poverty, this Government is also committed to keeping energy bills as low as possible as part of a long-term, coherent and affordable policy framework. That framework, which will take full account of our legally binding commitments on climate change and on fuel poverty, will focus on enabling consumers to take up the measures that are right for them and their home, whether solid wall insulation or other measures. We are soon to see Peter Hansford’s Review on Solid Wall Insulation for the Green Construction Board and that will help inform policy affecting the technology as will the recommendations from the Committee on Climate Change.