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Energy Bill [HL]

My Lords, I echo the Minister's comments about how the Bill has been conducted. It has been a great example of your Lordships working together to bring forward suggestions. I praise the Government for their efforts to look at the suggestions and amendments and bring forward amendments of their own. I recall at Second Reading the Minister said, "““I will clarify that this is a framework Bill on which there is a lot of work to be done””.—[Official Report, 22/12/10; col. 1151.]" During our deliberations, particularly in Committee and at Report, we have undertaken a lot of that work and brought forward amendments. I also echo the Minister’s thanks to his officials who have been very co-operative with us. We are grateful for that help and support. I also place on record my thanks to the many organisations that contacted us during the course of the Bill, such as Friends of the Earth, the Association for the Conservation of Energy, the World Wide Fund for Nature and many others. Their work and that of the energy companies have been endless. I have had more e-mails and briefing on this legislation than I have ever had in my entire parliamentary career. It has been very welcome and appreciated and we do not take that support and advice for granted. I welcome the amendments before us today; indeed, the Minister has brought them forward based on our suggestions. As the noble Lord, Lord Best, summed them up, they are a very modest but welcome step forward. The Minister brings forward the issue of ““materially”” but also of ““must”” rather than ““may””, on which we had some splendid discussions in Committee. He has taken on board the comments we made and the amendments go part of the way to enhancing the consumer protections in the Bill and to providing more information and more certainty for participants and consumers. None the less, however much I welcome the amendments he has brought forward, I must share with the House my disappointment, which is similar to that raised by the noble Baroness, Lady Maddock, and the noble Lord, Lord Best. I looked again at the comments the Minister made on Report and understood why I was so encouraged and optimistic about what he was going to bring forward. He was entirely genuine when he said: "““Throughout all these debates, which have been extremely well enunciated, and have found great favour with us, we have listened. We are all, after all, singing from the same hymn sheet, in particular on Amendments 69, 70””—" The Minister then listed those amendments, which noble Lords, including myself, had put down in support of quickly introducing regulations on the private rented sector. The Minister talked about ““materiality”” and said: "““It would be ridiculous if this””—" I took ““this”” to mean the amendments— "““did not find favour with us in terms of a form of words. I accept in principle the intention of this.””—[Official Report, 02/03/11; col. 1141]" I am very grateful for the amendments that he has brought forward, but I had expected him to bring forward something further around the issue of regulations on the private sector to improve energy efficiency and to have a baseline for energy efficiency in private rented sector homes—I expected amendments to be brought forward on that as well. The Minister may not have had time to bring those forward, or he may be considering them as government amendments for another place, in which case we would welcome that. However, across all sides of this House, we have stressed how important it is that we move quickly with amendments to bring forward regulations for the private rented sector. I hope he is able to satisfy us today that his comments on Report did encompass the amendments he referred to there, and that he does intend to bring forward amendments on the private rented sector. A list of 31 organisations—including Macmillan Cancer Support, Age UK, Citizens Advice, Consumer Focus and Crisis—are all calling for a minimum energy efficiency standard for private rented properties. This is not an issue we can let slide by. I was encouraged by the Minister’s comments on Report and I greatly welcome the amendments he has brought forward today, but I hope that they are a step on the way to the crucial amendments we need to seriously improve the private rented sector.