HC Deb 05 November 2002 vol 392 cc230-1W
Gregory Barker

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (1) what plans she has to expand existing domestic energy efficiency programmes; [77443]

(2) when she plans to develop a new strategy for home energy efficiency. [77444]

Mr. Morley

Decisions about current and future programmes for tackling domestic energy efficiency, including any future strategy, will be covered in the Energy White Paper, which the Government aims to publish around the turn of the year.

Gregory Barker

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what improvement in energy efficiency in domestic properties by 2010 she expects to result from local authorities' activities under the Home Energy Conservation Act 1995; what the predictions were in the UK Climate Change Strategy; and if she will make a statement on how the discrepancies will be addressed. [77439]

Mr. Morley

Circular 2/96 indicated that the Secretary of State expected energy conservation authorities' reports to show a strategy for making at least substantial progress towards a 30 per cent. improvement over a 10-year period. Improvement in the first six years is just over 8 per cent.. It is therefore clear that authorities are not going to make the improvements they originally hoped for. Decisions about the future role of local authorities in local energy efficiency are expected to be covered in the Energy White Paper, which the Government aims to publish around the turn of the year.

Malcolm Bruce

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (1) if she will list the(a) number, (b) location, (c) socio-economic characteristics, and (d) amount received of those households who have qualified for grants under the Home Energy Efficiency Scheme (i) since it began operating and (ii) allocated for future periods; [77588]

(2) if she will list the (a) number, (b) location, (c) socio-economic characteristics and (d) amount applied for of those households who have applied unsuccessfully for grants under the Home Energy Efficiency Scheme since it began operating. [77587]

Mr. Morley

The Home Energy Efficiency Scheme is now marketed as The Warm Front Team, and is the Government's main programme for tackling fuel poverty in the private sector in England. The Scheme was launched in June 2000 and by June 2002 over 400,000 households had received assistance and some £200 million had been spent on installing measures. Warm Front provides insulation and heating measures depending upon the needs of the householder and the property type.

The Scheme Managers provide, on an annual basis, information on the number, location and measures installed under the scheme to local authorities. However, socio-economic information is not colleted. I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to the hon. Member for Sutton and Cheam (Mr. Burstow) on 15 January 2002, Official Report, column 275W. Updated information is not available and could not be provided without incurring disproportionate cost.

Clients not eligible for assistance are not recorded. The numbers are likely to be significant and additional costs would be incurred in keying and maintaining the two Scheme Managers' databases. As an indication of scale, it is estimated that the two call centres handle in the region of 20,000 calls per week in the winter.

The level of funding available for future years of Warm Front will be decided by the Department in the new year as part of the spending review process.