Climate Change and SustainableEnergy Bill

I, too, wish my right hon. Friend the Member for Bromley and Chislehurst (Mr. Forth) a speedy recovery. I speak in support of the Bill because it represents another valuable attempt to focus our collective attention on the most important issue of our day, but it will also achieve practical results. I want to speak about just one of those results: the duty imposed on local authorities to have regard to information on energy measures when exercising local functions. That provision will help to ensure that public bodies are better at sharing best practice, co-ordinated by the energy measures report from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Clauses 3 and 20 are not unduly onerous, and many public bodies are already making energy efficiency a priority of their own accord. My own district council in Braintree is a good example. I was delighted thatmy hon. Friend the Member for East Surrey(Mr. Ainsworth) visited us recently. Braintree district council has been participating in a pilot scheme that offers a council tax rebate in return for the installation of cavity-wall insulation, and 15 other councils have so far followed Braintree’s example. I congratulate the council on that initiative. As the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee heard in evidence from the director of corporate affairs at British Gas,"““it is that sort of compelling offer which begins to shift this market... Braintree do not seem to have to market this very hard for people to actually come forward and say, ‘that’s a very interesting proposition and I would like to know more about it,’ because it is framed in a compelling way.””" We must change the perception that the promotion of microgeneration and energy efficiency to tackle climate change is somehow radical, or even unusual. Instead, it must be compelling and practical, and it must also make good economic sense. I congratulate the hon. Member for Edinburgh, North and Leith (Mark Lazarowicz) on introducing the Bill, and I am sorry that he is not here with us today. He has already succeeded in raising public awareness of these issues, and I have no doubt whatever that his success will continue once the Bill receives Royal Assent.