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Fuel Poverty Bill

I congratulate the hon. Member for Somerton and Frome (Mr. Heath) on his Bill, which deals with a very important subject. It is, I believe, far too important to be discussed along with four or five others. I am reminded of something that one of my favourite comedians, Woody Allen, once said. He was looking at the back of one of the American comics, featuring X-ray specs, Charles Atlas and so forth, when he spotted an advertisement for a speed-reading programme. He decided to go for it. Lo and behold, within four weeks he could read "War and Peace" in four hours. When someone asked him what it was about, he said "I think it concerns Russia." I feel a bit like that now. How is it possible to compress such an important subject as fuel poverty into four and half hours? I would like, with your indulgence, Mr. Deputy Speaker, to comment on the attendance today. I was going to say that there is only one person from Her Majesty's official Opposition here, but there now appears to be three—that is three times as many as they have in Scotland. Obviously, there are quite a few Lib Dems present, who for the most part I have never knowingly understood, but I am glad to see them. They are obviously here to support their colleague the hon. Member for Somerton and Frome. As I mentioned earlier, the Scottish National party claims to stand up for Scotland. However, not only does it fail to stand up for Scotland, but it fails to turn up for Scotland—there is not one SNP Member here. That should be on the record. I welcome the debate. It is an important issue for all of us and all our constituents. I am pleased that the Government have maintained their commitment to tackle fuel poverty. They have a statutory target to end fuel poverty, so far as is reasonable, for all households across the UK by 2016. The three impacts on fuel poverty are household income, energy prices and the energy efficiency of the home. We have tackled all those elements in different ways. First, on income, the Government introduced the winter fuel payment in 1997 specifically to help older people who are particularly vulnerable to the effects of cold weather with their winter fuel bills. Earlier this year, millions of vulnerable people and pensioners received the highest ever cold weather payment, which has been trebled by the Government this year from £8.50 to £25 a week. The latest payments mean that the Government had paid more than £100 million to pensioners and vulnerable people to help with fuel bills as the cold snap hit Britain this winter. That was not the only extra help announced by the Government for vulnerable people and pensioners this winter. There was an extra £575 million spent on winter fuel payments this year, with £250 for those in households with someone 60 or over and £400 for those with someone 80 and above. There has also been the biggest increase in the state pension since 2001 and the biggest increase in pension credit since it was introduced. In 1997, the poorest pensioners had to live on just £69 a week but now, thanks to pension credit, no pensioner need live on less than £124 a week, and that will rise to £130 in April. Secondly, while prices were on their way down and incomes were rising, fuel poverty declined. Prices started to rise recently, and that has been the biggest problem in our efforts to tackle fuel poverty. People need to be confident that the prices that they pay are fair. It is wrong that people face unfair prices because of where they live or the method that they use to pay. The recent Office of Gas and Electricity Markets investigation of retail gas and electricity markets identifies several unfair pricing practices. Ofgem was right when it called on the energy companies to end those unfair practices, and the supply companies have partly responded by addressing excessive premiums charged to some groups of customers. However, there is more to be done. It is also essential that changes are made to ensure that customers, particularly the vulnerable, are not discriminated against. We need to ensure that pricing remains fair, so I support Ofgem's work to establish licence conditions for suppliers to achieve that. The changes that it proposed in January to the licences of suppliers will change the law to ensure that such unfair practice does not happen again. If that approach fails, I agree that the Government will need to act. I was pleased that the Government managed to get voluntary agreement for social tariffs from companies. The Bill suggests giving the power to the Secretary of State to mandate social tariffs. That is a serious step and I hope that the Government are examining it in their fuel poverty review. I also welcome the agreement with energy suppliers to increase how much they are spending on their social programmes in the next three years. Already 800,000 customer accounts are benefiting from social tariffs—almost double the number in March 2008. This is the first year of our voluntary agreement with energy companies to spend more on social programmes and that spending will increase further over the next three years. Despite that positive news, we must not forget that there are still unfair practices from energy companies with regard to prepayment meters. Some companies have backdated bills to customers on prepayment meters. Debts have built up on the old-style meters, often through no fault of the customer after the company failed to update the token meters with price changes that must be done manually. The amount owing has come to light only when the old token meter has been upgraded to a more modern version and customers have then received backdated bills, in some cases for four years. That is unacceptable and I am pleased the Secretary of State is keen for energy companies to do right by their customers in these difficult times by not backdating their bills for months and years and by making efforts to replace the meters. Energy efficiency is crucial in tackling fuel poverty. The Warm Front scheme has helped 1.8 million householders with new heating and insulation measures, but there are improvements to be made and I am glad that the Government will be working hard to ensure that the result is a fair, efficient and effective programme. A recent National Audit Office report makes a valuable contribution. It is right that the Government are taking steps to improve the scheme and I welcome the hiring of an independent troubleshooter to review the contract. I welcome, too, the increased funding of £174 million since September. I also think that there is a strong case for raising the current grant levels, and I would like to hear the thoughts of my hon. Friend the Minister on that. Let us be in no doubt, however: the Opposition's plans to cut the Department of Energy and Climate Change budget would put Warm Front funding under threat for thousands of families. A 1 per cent. cut in the Department's budget would mean a cut of £80 million in Warm Front funding. That would mean 32,000 fewer of the most vulnerable households getting the help that they need to heat and insulate their homes. Labour increased the money for Warm Front by £100 million in the pre-Budget report, which the Opposition opposed. If the Opposition were to have their way, that would mean another 40,000 vulnerable households not getting the help that they need. The Government also have a serious and ambitious programme for energy efficiency. They are launching an ambitious package that aims for nothing less than a fundamental shift in our approach and the way we use and save energy at home and at work—an energy revolution. The plan has three elements: first, a street-by-street, house-by-house approach with offers of comprehensive advice, or in other words an "energy audit"; secondly, a financial package that will support whole-house and in some places whole-area makeovers, where payback is linked to the house not the individual, with people better off from day one; and thirdly, a commitment to ensure fairness in what we deliver and the way we deliver it. A community-based approach will often be the way to ensure that we deliver those measures fairly. We need an energy revolution to keep energy affordable and secure and to make it low-carbon. Labour offers real help now for people to cut their energy bills and reduce their carbon footprint, but preparing for the long term—a low-carbon future—requires a radical shift in the energy efficiency of our homes and buildings, and decarbonising our heat supply. Labour's ambition is to support and help people make their homes part of that future. People will be offered home energy advice, and the chance to have whole-house treatments, which could be paid for through a financial package, and which should mean overall savings on their energy bills from day one. We cannot leave fairness to chance. The Government will ensure that the vulnerable get the extra help that they need, working closely with community organisations and local authorities. We cannot leave tackling climate change to chance and to the enthusiasts. All of us can gain by doing our bit. Our ambition is for 7 million homes to get whole-house treatments, including insulation and low-carbon heating supplies, by 2020.