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Climate Change and Sustainable Energy Bill

To follow what my right hon. Friend the Member for Bromley and Chislehurst (Mr. Forth) has just said about fuel poverty and his amendment, I have always been rather an enthusiast for eliminating fuel poverty and thought that the Government were, too. Indeed, I thought that Labour’s 1997 manifesto included a commitment to that effect. In those days, the Government defined fuel poverty as occurring when a household had to spend more than 10 per cent. of its gross income on fuel. Since then, however, they realised that they would be unable to meet their political promises so they changed the definition of fuel poverty and watered it down to a much woollier concept. My right hon. Friend is right to draw attention to what is now a meaningless concept; it sounds good, but what will it actually achieve in practice? About two or three years ago, I developed the idea—I should like to claim the credit for originating it—of describing the plight of pensioners whose council tax bills are so high that they take more than 10 per cent. of their annual income as pensioner council tax poverty. I took the view that it is unreasonable to expect old people, who obviously have heating costs and other bills and liabilities, to have to spend more than 10 per cent. of their gross income on council tax. However, I received no sympathy for that proposition from the Government. Indeed, they pooh-poohed the idea and seemed to think it perfectly reasonable that some people might have to pay out 20 per cent. of their gross income—as they do in my constituency—on council tax, which delivers few direct benefits for them and goes towards paying the costs of education. They may have grandchildren or great-grandchildren in education, but many of my constituents feel that the burden of council tax going towards the cost of education is at breaking point—indeed, beyond breaking point. Instead of paying such high council tax, they would much prefer to have the money in their pocket so that they could pay their fuel bills without needing to be dependent on subsidies from the Government. If we want efficient use of energy, we should allow the market to operate, as it has been doing recently. The cost of fuel has been rising and as a result, I suspect that many people are using less. Of course, one consequence of the market operating is that the cost of fuel is rising for elderly people and households such as I have described.