My Lords, these government amendments propose a change to the Warm Homes and Energy Conservation Act in order to put in place a new, rigorous and flexible framework for measuring the Government’s progress in tackling fuel poverty in England. As we move forward with ensuring a safe, low-carbon future we must ensure that everybody is able to benefit from our policies.
Last year, Professor Hills completed his independent review of fuel poverty and concluded that we had been measuring the problem in the wrong way. Our concern about how we measure fuel poverty has been driven by wanting to address the problem more effectively.
High levels of fuel poverty a decade or so ago were masked by official figures that suggested the problem had been solved. The sensitivity to energy prices of the definition, creating an ever changing picture of the households who are fuel poor, makes designing and implementing effective policies extremely difficult. We want to learn the lessons of this.
We will therefore be adopting the new definition of fuel poverty proposed by Professor Hills. This finds a household to be fuel poor if it is below the official poverty line and if it has higher than typical energy costs. It is a more accurate measure of the problem. It brings the major advantage of telling us not only how many fuel-poor households there are but how badly affected each household is. This will help us target policies much more effectively, as our recently published Fuel Poverty: A Framework for Future Action attests. Although this new definition is rightly at the centre of our proposals, it is clear that a single indicator is not sufficient to give us an understanding of this complex problem. We therefore intend to monitor fuel poverty through a number of key indicators.
One of the important conclusions of the Hills review was that fuel poverty is a long-term structural problem, requiring an ongoing effort to mitigate it.
The current framework does not reflect this, focused as it is on ensuring that no person lives in fuel poverty, as far as reasonably practicable. We want to address this problem with the current framework by adopting a new target focused on improving the energy efficiency of the homes of the fuel poor. In this way we can ensure that our efforts are directed towards a key cause of high energy bills and make a real difference to people who are struggling to keep warm.
Amendment 50J therefore sets a duty for the Secretary of State to have an objective to address fuel poverty and for the details of this new target to be specified in regulations, rather than in primary legislation as it is currently. The regulations must set out the form of that target, the level that will be achieved and the date by which this will be done. The secondary legislation must be brought forward within six months of the provisions entering into force. The amendment also maintains the duty on the Secretary of State to have in place a fuel poverty strategy but makes this duty consistent with the new objective.
Amendments 56A and 58 are minor provisions to be clear on the territorial extent of the amendments, where our proposals would apply to England only, and the commencement date for the provisions, which will be two months after the Act receives Royal Assent.
While we want to give the new target statutory backing, it would not be wise to set it in primary legislation. We need to be flexible in our approach to fuel poverty as we reform the electricity market, seek to drive the uptake of renewable heat in our homes, and bring about major improvements in energy efficiency standards through the Green Deal and ECO. We therefore think it appropriate for the details of the target to be set in secondary legislation, subject to parliamentary debate and the affirmative resolution of both Houses.
As part of this change, we need to be realistic about how quickly we can make progress. The current target is 2016. The interventions necessary to address the problem as we understand it cannot be undertaken within that timeframe. The needs of the fuel poor must continue to be championed after that date. A sensible approach for the future is to align our efforts on fuel poverty with the action we are taking more widely in tackling climate change. As my noble friend Lord Deben knows, the Committee on Climate Change already has a responsibility to monitor the Government’s approach to fuel poverty. The two issues go hand in hand.
Our amendments will allow us to bring forward proposals for a new target, including its precise form and level, and a date for its accomplishment. We will ensure that the determination and insights of those on the front line, working day in and day out to help alleviate fuel poverty, are reflected in our approach.
We want to make sure that the target bites. Our amendments therefore retain the key primary duty to have a fuel poverty strategy that sets out how we will meet our future target. Our amendments require us to set interim targets that will ensure that we stay on
track along the way. Our recently published Fuel Poverty: a Framework for Future Action already sets out a direction of travel and underlines our commitment to tackling fuel poverty in a meaningful way.
I welcome the support that our announcements and proposed amendments received from the chair of the Fuel Poverty Advisory Group and the chief executive of National Energy Action, given their expertise on the issue. I understand that there may be some who are concerned by a significant change to the long-standing fuel poverty framework set out in the Warm Homes and Energy Conservation Act. By fixing a framework for the long term, the amendments ensure that, far from ceasing to be of concern in 2016, fuel poverty will remain high on the Government’s agenda throughout the delivery of our ambitious programme for energy efficiency and the energy sector in the UK.
Our amendments provide for an ongoing focus on helping low-income, vulnerable households keep warm, and will help them stay ahead in the energy efficiency market rather than fall behind. I trust that noble Lords will recognise the seriousness of our intentions to make real progress in tackling this long-term problem and will support the amendments. I beg to move.