Parliamentary Debates (Hansard)
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Thursday Volume 560 14 March 2013 No. 130 HOUSE OF COMMONS OFFICIAL REPORT PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES (HANSARD) Thursday 14 March 2013 £5·00 © Parliamentary Copyright House of Commons 2013 This publication may be reproduced under the terms of the Open Parliament licence, which is published at www.parliament.uk/site-information/copyright/. 451 14 MARCH 2013 452 a huge market out there for the green deal. What is my House of Commons right hon. Friend doing to promote the green deal to make sure that as many people as possible take it up? Thursday 14 March 2013 Mr Davey: I can assure my hon. Friend that I, my Ministers, the whole Department and the whole The House met at half-past Nine o’clock Government are pushing the green deal. The solid walls that he referred to—those 8 million homes—have not featured in energy efficiency programmes in any major way PRAYERS before. It has been an undealt-with issue in energy efficiency. We have not ducked that and we are tackling it. [MR SPEAKER in the Chair] Luciana Berger (Liverpool, Wavertree) (Lab/Co-op): It is just over a month since the green deal was launched. We have just heard that more than 2,000 assessments Oral Answers to Questions have taken place. However, the Secretary of State refuses to reveal how many households have actually signed for a green deal package. We know that the Department is monitoring green deal uptake in real time through the ENERGY AND CLIMATE CHANGE energy performance certificate register. Why will he not share that information with the House today? The Secretary of State was asked— Mr Davey: I am surprised that the hon. Lady has Energy Efficiency asked that question as it suggests that she does not understand how the green deal plans work. She should know, and I think she probably does, that after an 1. Mr Iain McKenzie (Inverclyde) (Lab): What steps assessment has been made and an installation programme he is taking to help households improve their energy has been booked, the green deal plan is signed only efficiency. [147676] after the installation has been completed and then goes on to the green deal register for the green deal payments The Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change to appear on the bill. So there is quite a lag, as the hon. (Mr Edward Davey): Before I answer may I, on behalf Lady would know. We did not expect a huge number of of many Members of the House, welcome the election green deal plans to have already been signed. The key of the new pope, Pope Francis? issue at this stage is the green deal assessments and the The green deal, which went fully live on Monday green deal assessors, and we are making huge progress, 28 January, will help transform the homes of British people as the industry is saying. over the coming decade and beyond. This transformational policy, along with the energy company obligation and Luciana Berger: I thank the Secretary of State for the roll-out of smart meters, will drive the development that response, but he will know that the public want to of a new energy efficiency market, providing unprecedented know how many people, having seen their assessment, choice, benefits and access to low-cost finance for British have signed on the dotted line for the deal. Given that households. Nationwide is offering energy efficiency loans with an interest rate of just 2.29%—less than a third of the Mr McKenzie: The Government claim that the green interest rate under the green deal—does the Secretary of deal will be the biggest and best home improvement State believe that more people would take out the green plan since the second world war. Can the Minister tell deal if offered a better deal? us how many households have taken out the green deal so far? Mr Davey: The green deal is going well, as the industry says. I welcome Nationwide’s product because it shows that there is more competition in the market. It shows Mr Davey: The green deal has got off to an excellent what the green deal is spurring. It is not just green deal start. As the hon. Gentleman may know, we have released plans that will be a mark of the programme’s success; it data today which show that nearly 2,000 green deal is green deal self-funded plans, which will be a result of assessments have been made, and already that figure is the green deal assessments being made. They would not out of date. There are more than 600 accredited advisers be made in the way that they are if we had not gone and more than 600 installing firms have been accredited. forward, and the hon. Lady should welcome that. Nearly £30 million of ecos have been traded on eco- brokerage. The hon. Gentleman should listen to the Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con): Domestic industry. I do not often recommend that people listen to LED lighting can use as little as 5% of the power of a tweets, but if he looks at the tweets of British Gas, normal light bulb. Though more expensive initially to GHE Solar, Toriga and Green Deal Shop, they will tell buy, LED light bulbs require very little maintenance him and other right hon. and hon. Members how well and have a very long life. What incentives are there in those firms are doing with assessments and, they believe, the green deal or elsewhere to promote domestic LED taking those on to installations. lighting? Stephen Mosley (City of Chester) (Con): It is estimated Mr Davey: My hon. Friend makes an important that 8 million homes would benefit from solid wall point. We strongly support LED lighting. There are insulation and 4 million from cavity insulation. There is issues about whether different types of lighting can 453 Oral Answers14 MARCH 2013 Oral Answers 454 come under the green deal because light bulbs can be survive, two more pits—one that is loss making, one taken away, and if the cost of those is in the electricity that is making a bob or two—could go, as well as some meter for the next tenant or the next owner-occupier, other land sites. When he is talking about Daw Mill that would not be fair and would not, therefore, abide colliery and talking to UK Coal, will he ensure that he by the green deal rules. But we agree with my hon. protects the redundancy money? There is someone in Friend—there is a strong case for people investing in my constituency who used to work in Derbyshire but LED. who now travels 100 miles there and back to Daw Mill. Will he get his redundancy pay? He was finished before Deep-mine Coal Industry the fire, so will the Minister get on with it? 2. Ian Lavery (Wansbeck) (Lab): What assessment he Mr Hayes: The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right— has made of the future of the deep-mine coal industry again, he is an authority on these matters. The pits at in the UK. [147677] Thoresby and Kellingley are, of course, also owned by Daw Mill. Part of our determination—the determination The Minister of State, Department of Energy and Climate I outlined a moment ago—is to ensure that the future of Change (Mr John Hayes): The Government value the those pits is secured. However, he is also right to say—this role of British coal in meeting our energy needs. Equipped goes for me, too—that the workers matter most in all with carbon capture and storage, coal generation can this. That includes the workers who were made redundant continue to play a significant long-term role as part of a in the early restructuring, the workers at Thoresby and future low-carbon energy mix. Kellingley and the workers at Daw Mill. I have made that abundantly clear to the unions, with which I had Ian Lavery: The Minister is very much aware of the such a positive meeting, and I have told the company situation at Daw Mill colliery, where 650 miners who that, for the Government, it is a key priority. have given their lives to the coal mining industry are facing uncertainty with regard to redundancy payments. Tom Greatrex (Rutherglen and Hamilton West) (Lab/ Will he give a commitment to do everything in his Co-op): The Minister has already referred to the importance power to ensure that these men receive their entitlements of CCS in relation to the medium and long-term future in full? of coal generation. I am sure he will be aware that around two thirds of the coal we burn to generate Mr Hayes: There are few in this House who can electricity in the UK is imported. He might not be match the hon. Gentleman’s understanding, knowledge aware yet that, as of 9.5 this morning, 46% of all the and support for the coal industry. I cannot match it, but electricity being generated in Britain today is from what I can match is his determination to do right by the coal-fired stations. Given those two factors and his workers there. I had a positive meeting with the unions determination, as he has said in the past, to put the yesterday; I also met UK Coal yesterday and, again, “coal” into coalition, may I urge him to put the “sense” had a positive meeting. The Government will do all into sensible and get on with developing a short-term they can, not only to protect the future of the coal strategy for coal to protect the indigenous industry in industry, but to protect the interests of those workers the UK? who will lose their jobs at Daw Mill.