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UK Government's Energy Policy

I thank the hon. Lady for her intervention. I have recently had correspondence with a supplier, while trying to get one of my constituents out of a contract. He said that he was held by golden handcuffs because the initial deal was so good, but he is now regretting at leisure. On the renewable heat obligation, I want to press the Government to consider the possibility of providing additional help for people who use LPG to enable them switch, perhaps to heat-source pumps or woodchip boilers, in rural areas where there is no piped gas. Does the Minister see a greater role for emergency planning for contingencies such as the interruption of supply in extreme weather? I referred this morning to the break in supply for my constituents around Christmas. The OFT has also been investigating the supply of home fuel oil, and in my rural constituency, as throughout Wales, many people will look at the result of that investigation with interest. Turning briefly to the Energy Bill, I want to relate some of what I said this morning to it, and to the green deal scheme, of which we heard a little this morning, which aims to encourage the uptake of energy efficiency measures in the housing stock. There has been a coalition of several groups in Wales—Friends of the Earth Cymru, Haf Elgar from that organisation, NEA, Shelter, Oxfam, National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux and many others. It put together a useful briefing before consideration of the Energy Bill, and I recommend it to hon. Members on both sides of the Committee. The briefing points out, for example, that private rented homes in Wales are the worst maintained parts of housing stock. They contain many vulnerable households and people living in fuel poverty. People in rented private houses are over four times more likely to live in cold homes than those in social rented houses. More than a third of private rental tenants in Wales are fuel-poor; the private sector has a greater proportion of the most energy-inefficient homes—those in band G—and they are twice as common in the private rented sector as in other sectors. So there is a particular question here. The 2008 Living in Wales data showed that, on average, an E rating is the most common in private rented properties—lower than in any other kind of tenure. As we heard this morning from an Opposition Member, there is a particular problem in Wales with houses with solid walls—there being no cavity to fill. Friends of the Earth Cymru and the others have called for tenants to be empowered—as the word is now—through access to high quality and reliable information about the energy performance of their properties to enable them to make informed choices. This is even more critical given the Government’s proposals on housing benefits. Restricting housing benefits to the bottom third of the private market will, I am certain, drive poorer households dependent on benefits not only into cheaper accommodation but into the poorer quality end of the market, where the standards of energy efficiency are lowest. Unsurprisingly, I am against the proposed changes. I believe they show clearly that this is not just a matter of empowering individual consumers—important as that is—but there are structural considerations as well. Friends of the Earth say that landlords need information about the full range of measures that can be taken to improve the energy efficiency and carbon emissions of their properties. It says that the energy performance certificate—EPC—rating of properties should be displayed in adverts and marketing materials, and it calls for a wide range of measures to be adopted, from establishing a timetable for the introduction of minimal legal standards of energy efficiency to giving Welsh Ministers a duty to establish incentives for landlords to meet and exceed the minimum standards and provide access to a scheme of low-cost capital for energy efficiency improvements. Lastly, it wants to give Welsh Ministers the power to require landlords to register their properties with the relevant local authority. These would all improve the market conditions for individual tenants looking to rent the most fuel-efficient, as well as the most economical, properties. The Welsh Government have high ambitions for energy efficiency in homes. Fuel poverty is, of course, an enormous problem in Wales and the Energy Bill will be an opportunity to tackle that problem. I hope the Minister can reassure me that the Government here will take full advantage of that opportunity.