The noble Baroness is forgiven entirely, and let us hope she will come to support the amendment at the end.
The Bill is clear what it is about. It is to make provision about the safety of people in and around buildings and about the standards of buildings. As I said on Second Reading, it is surely relevant to consider the impact of poor-quality homes on the safety of people who live in them, not least given the claim by the Building Research Establishment that millions of individuals and families are living in unhealthy housing, a reality that is having a huge impact on the NHS. Even more worrying is the number of deaths caused by poor-quality homes. We know from the ONS figures that some 8,500 people died in the winter two years ago because of cold housing. They simply did not have sufficient money to keep their homes warm, and often that was because of poor insulation.
We still have in this country over 13.5 million homes that are deemed below what the Government have set as the acceptable energy performance level, that is band C on the energy performance rating. Of those, over 3 million homes are occupied by families deemed to be fuel poor, that is people who even without the rocketing bills that we are now experiencing simply cannot afford to stay warm. Far too many people in this country are having to choose between heating and eating. On Second Reading, I also pointed out, as others have done subsequently, that the removal of unsafe cladding is making the situation worse.
Like the noble Baroness, Lady Fox, I was horrified by the remarks of the group that runs the Pendleton tower block in the note that she mentioned, which gave tips about dressing in layers, wearing a hat and gloves, not drinking alcohol and so on. What the noble Baroness did not point out was that that note came to light in a meeting to discuss increasing the rent for residents in that block. It was absolutely condescending. We need to do more to help the fuel poor, as well as those having to deal with the removal of unsafe cladding. That means improving the energy efficiency of existing homes.
6.45 pm
The Government have said that they want to do that. The Heat and Buildings Strategy states:
“To meet Net Zero virtually all heat in buildings will need to be decarbonised. The benefits of more efficient, low-carbon buildings for consumers are clear: smarter, better performing buildings, reduced energy bills and healthier, more comfortable environments.”
In the light of this week’s very sobering Inter- governmental Panel on Climate Change report, which drew attention to the worsening impact of climate change, and the letters we are all receiving this week from our energy suppliers about increases in our bills, action is urgently needed.
The great thing is that the Government are committed to taking action. The energy White Paper referred to
“our target of reaching as many existing homes as possible at EPC Band C or above by 2035.”
On 9 February last year, the noble Lord, Lord Callanan, assured me in an Answer to a Written Question that the Government were committed to this, describing the
“aim for as many homes as possible to be EPC Band C by 2035, where practical, cost-effective, and affordable.”
In relation to the fuel poor, the Government want to achieve exactly the same: EPC band C for the over 3 million such homes five years earlier, by 2030. Government commitments are really clear on these points. The fuel poverty strategy, published in February last year, spoke of meeting the target and achieving the outcome of all fuel-poor homes achieving EPC band C by 2030. This has been repeated in Answers to Written Questions, when I have been assured that that really is the Government’s aim.
The Government have targets to do exactly what I believe needs doing. To date, however, those targets are not enshrined in legislation, despite the Government increasingly arguing the benefits of putting targets of one sort or another into legislation, just as they have, in a very welcome way, in relation to the Climate Change Act.
Putting the very targets that the Government are committed to in the Bill, as proposed in my amendment, has real benefits. First, it ensures that it will be much harder for a future Government to kick them into the long grass. Secondly, and much more importantly, we have to ensure that we have an industry—this is the point about shortages of people and so on; the noble Baroness is right—that has the skills and equipment and has done the necessary training and preparation to carry this out. When I first proposed this in a Private Member’s Bill some time ago, over 100 businesses, including some of the largest companies, such as Mitsubishi, Vaillant and Worcester Bosch, wrote to the Minister, saying
“we require the certainty of statutory targets to give us the certainty that is needed to trigger the high level of investment necessary to achieve Carbon Budget 5 and net zero.”
Andrew Warren, chair of the British Energy Efficiency Federation, wrote:
“On far too many occasions the energy efficiency industry has been made promises by Governments, only to see them withdrawn. This has resulted in the laying off of staff, the loss of investment and the closure of factories”,
as well as the necessary training not being carried out.
I believe that, to give the industry the confidence it needs to get on with the task and achieve the targets the Government have set it, we should put these targets in legislation and enshrine them in law. That is what this amendment does. There are two ways of going forward: either the Minister can accept this amendment or she can accept the offer I made to the other Minister to accept my Private Member’s Bill, which does exactly that. I would be happy with either way. I hope they will support this amendment and that I have persuaded the noble Baroness, Lady Neville-Rolfe, to accept it as well.