David Lepper

Labour Party | Brighton Pavilion

Warm Front

Home Energy Efficiency in the Community

Opening speech at a conference in Hove Town Hall   20th February 2004

Many thanks for the invitation to be here today.

Not only as a constituency MP but also as a member of the Parliamentary Warm Homes Group and of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee, I very much welcome this event on Home Energy Efficiency in the Community jointly organised by Brighton and Hove City Council and the Warm Front Team.

Improved energy efficiency is vital for many reasons.

It plays an important role in helping the UK reach its targets under the Kyoto agreement.

In the government’s White Paper on Energy there is an aspiration to save 5 mega tonnes of carbon emissions a year from household energy efficiency by 2010.

And energy efficiency is vital for achieving the government’s target for its UK Fuel Poverty Strategy.

Energy efficiency and fuel poverty are clearly linked.

The target it to reduce the number of households in fuel poverty to 40,000 by 2008 and to eliminate fuel poverty for vulnerable households by 2010

Warm Front is a major part of the programme to achieve that target.

This year the budget for dealing with fuel poverty from the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs – which funds Warm Front  - is £156 million with the bulk of that funding - £152 million going to Warm Front.

Nationally over 700,000 households have received assistance from Warm Front and locally in my Brighton Pavilion Constituency alone since 2000 thanks to Warm Front 1379 households have been made warmer. That includes 1026 with improved insulation and 577 who have had heating repairs or a new boiler.

Ensuring people – especially older people – can afford to heat their homes is important – hence the Winter Fuel Payment. But Energy Efficiency is the key to tackling fuel poverty.

Other elements in the Fuel Poverty Strategy include  -

• The Energy Efficiency Commitment which places an obligation on electricity and gas suppliers to meet targets for improvements in energy efficiency
• The Decent Homes Standard. Some of us are arguing the case for including in the Housing Bill now going through Parliament provisions to require the same minimum insulation and heating standards for social housing as for new build – with loft and cavity wall insulation, an efficient heating system and a minimum energy efficiency rating.

The requirement under the Home Energy Conservation Act 1995 for local authorities to produce annual reports on progress made in improving energy efficiency in domestic premises is important and should continue.

In 2003 the Treasury consulted on an number of measures – widening the 5% VAT reduction on energy saving materials; enhanced capital allowances for energy service providers and a new tax allowance for landlords investing in energy efficiency.

In the course of that consultation other proposals have been made to the Treasury by, among others, the National Federation of Residential Landlords and the Sustainable Energy Partnership for stamp duty rebate at the time of purchase for homebuyers installing energy efficiency measures and tax allowances for training installers. There is also the idea that grants currently available for new technologies should be extended to micro combined heat and power systems.

This month the Second Report of the Fuel Poverty Advisory Group to government chaired by Peter Lehmann, chair of the Energy saving Trust, made a number of recommendations.

• Better integration between Warm Front and the Priority Energy Efficiency Commitment when the schemes are revised next year to increase cost effectiveness for the benefit of customers.
• The need for all government departments as well as Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Department for Trade and Industry to be involved in these strategies.
• Especially the need for the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister to be more closely involved in this work and to produce an action plan for ending fuel poverty in the private rented sector.

As an MP for a constituency with a large number of Houses in Multiple Occupation I welcome the ODPM’s proposal in the new Housing Bill that energy efficiency standards should be part of the Home Health and Safety Rating System for HMOs. And I am glad that the Private Sector Housing Forum and the Southern Private Landlords Association are represented here today.

I also welcome the ODPM’s inclusion in the same Bill of proposals for energy audits to be part of Home Information Packs when buying and selling houses.

Health policy is increasingly concerned with prevention and public health.

Fuel poverty and energy inefficiency clearly contributes to ill health. Cold homes exacerbate respiratory and Cardiovascular disease, particularly in older people. And particularly if associated with for instance, smoking and poor diet.

I welcome the involvement of the Primary Care Trust and South Downs Health NHS Trust in this event.

The Report recommends clearer direction from the Dept for Health to Primary Care Trusts on these issues.

 A further recommendation is about the role of the Department for Work and Pensions especially the use of the Social Fund to encourage purchase of energy efficient appliances.

Several of us seeking commitments from government in the Public Spending Round 2005-2008 for the resources necessary to extend the effectiveness of programmes and hope to meet ministers to discuss this soon.

Finally, let me mention one other aspect of fuel poverty about which some of us are lobbying in Parliament. That is to support Energy Watch’s campaign to ban disconnection of gas or electricity supplies as a sanction for debt.

Every year there are some 20,000 disconnections.

Energy Watch argues that there should be a responsibility placed on suppliers to support customers with advice about cheaper payment methods and for debt repayment rather than disconnection.

With that level of disconnections still happening the practical measures for energy efficiency being discussed here today become all the more vital.