Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate he has made of the average change in costs per household of a switch from house coal to smokeless fuel in (a) Northumberland, (b) County Durham, (c) Yorkshire, (d) Cornwall and (e) Hampshire.

Defra commissioned analysis of heat output from a range of fuels to determine fuel efficiency and costs to consumers. The costs of fuels were investigated across six regions in England (North East, North West, Midlands, South East including East of England, and South West) which showed that manufactured solid fuels were, in general, cheaper when heat output was taken into consideration on an open fire.