§ Gregory BarkerTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will give an undertaking to eradicate fuel poverty by 2010; and if she will make a statement. [77416]
§ Mr. MorleyThe UK Fuel Poverty Strategy, published in November 2001, sets out the approach of the Government and the Devolved Administrations to tackling fuel poverty. It explains that the goal of the Government and the Devolved Administrations is to seek an end to the problem of fuel poverty. In particular they will seek an end to the blight of fuel poverty for vulnerable households by 2010. We are currently consulting on a clarification to the strategy which will set a target for the eradication of fuel poverty in respect of households other than those in the vulnerable categories. The consultation period ends 29 November 2002. We intend to produce an annual report on our progress in implementing the Strategy in the new year.
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§ Gregory BarkerTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what plans she has to increase public awareness of energy efficient products and services. [77442]
§ Mr. MorleyMy Department remains committed to expanding the highly visible mandatory EU energy labelling for appliances and equipment. This also requires the provision of similar consumer information in catalogues and in other product literature which all serve to increase consumer awareness.
We are also encouraging EU-wide voluntary agreements with manufacturers and service providers which aim to set targets for improved products and services and raise awareness of energy efficiency issues. One aspect of this is to provide reliable, public domain consumer environmental information about their products and services via point-of-sale information and searchable product information data-bases.
The Energy Saving Trust, which is funded by my Department, encourages the sustainable use of energy in the domestic and small business sectors. Work includes an Energy Efficiency campaign to encourage domestic consumers to take up energy efficiency measures. The Trust also runs a product endorsement scheme which signposts customers to products that are the most—or among the most—energy efficient available and aims to increase sales of these products. Products that are accredited under the scheme carry the Energy Efficiency Recommended logo. Decisions about future plans for raising public awareness of energy efficient products and services will be covered in the Energy White Paper, which the Government aims to publish around the turn of the year.
§ Gregory BarkerTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will make it her policy to allow local authorities to set targets for the improvement of energy efficiency in stock transferred to registered social landlords. [77460]
§ Mr. McNultyI have been asked to reply.
Local Authorities are already able to set such targets. The Housing Transfer Guidance 2002 Programme, issued by DTLR in September 2001, expects a local authority to ensure that each transfer proposal agreed with a new landlord delivers the energy efficiency targets that are implicit in the Government's decent homes target (to ensure all social housing is brought up to a decent standard by 2010).
§ Gregory BarkerTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what discussions she has had with HM Treasury on the ways in which economic policies and instruments might be used to assist home energy efficiency. [77470]
§ Mr. MorleyDefra and HM Treasury have carried out a joint consultation on economic instruments to improve household energy efficiency. The results of thisconsultation will be jointly considered, in the context of the wider process of preparing the Energy White Paper, which the Government aims to publish around the turn of the year. Any decisions on possible tax changes would be a matter for the Chancellor to consider as part of the Budget process.
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§ Gregory BarkerTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what plans she has to develop energy efficiency indicators, targets and monitoring mechanisms for each sector of the economy. [77471]
§ Mr. MorleyThe Government will respond to the PIU's recommendations in the Energy White Paper, which the Government aims to publish around the turn of the year.