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Climate Change and Sustainable Energy Bill

: I will try to make my comments brief. I had hoped to speak in favour of the amendments, but, having listened to many of the points that have been made, I recognise that new clause 4 is fundamentally flawed. I had hoped to speak in support of it because I believe passionately that climate change is the biggest problem that we face. However, very little evidence has been brought forward in this debate on how to prioritise and allocate resources efficiently in relation to the problem. New clause 4 takes the direction of environmental policies away from local government to central Government. I do not support that move, because localism will create much greater diversity. It concerns me greatly that the Secretary of State will have greater powers, particularly under subsection (3) of new clause 4, which appears to give him powers to compel local authorities to have regard to any report that he deems relevant. That is turning things on their head. We need diversity in local government. Unlike other hon. Members, I do not believe that fuel poverty has a place in the Bill. It is a useful term and engages with real problems. However, rather than highlighting an issue, it dilutes the more general issue of poverty overall and negates some other forms of poverty such as water poverty. The Government are fixated on fuel poverty and water poverty, rather than food poverty—my right hon. Friend the Member for Bromley and Chislehurst (Mr. Forth) raised that point. They are still deeply uncomfortable with energy and water requirements being provided by the private sector in their entirety. It is less defensible to attack the position on food security and food poverty, requirements that have been dealt with by the private sector efficiently for a much greater time. My hon. Friend the Member for Ruislip-Northwood (Mr. Hurd) believes that new clause 4(5) is a good provision and provides a much greater case for approving the Bill. I am afraid that I share the views of my hon. Friend the Member for Christchurch (Mr. Chope) that it does not compel the Secretary of State to produce anything of substance. If an energy measures report was going to be useful, it would have been much better to see a detail compelling the Secretary of State to produce specific information in that report. I mentioned the issue of unitary councils in relation to new clause 4(6). I would appreciate it if the Minister dealt with that point. It may well be that a unitary council is part of a community council.