HC Deb 26 March 2004 vol 419 cc1083-4W
Brian White

: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what energy targets she plans to introduce for the Government estate to reduce energy consumption per square metre of buildings floor area over the present decade. [161199]

Mr. Morley

: The government published on 26 February 2004, the energy section of the Framework for Sustainable Development on the Government Estate. This contained all of the energy targets for the central government estate including the following: Government Departments to increase the energy efficiency of the buildings on their estate, measured in terms of kWh of (1) fuel and (2) electricity use per square metre of buildings floor area, or estate area1, by 15 per cent by 2010–11, relative to 1999–2000. 1 Due to the diversity of the Government Estate, Departments can report using either the floor area of tilt it buildings, or the total estate area.

Mrs. Dean

: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many grants to aid domestic energy efficiency there were in (a) Staffordshire and (b) the Burton constituency in each of the last three years; and what the total cost of such grants was. [161840]

Mr. Morley

: A number of programmes exist to improve the energy efficiency of a household including schemes run by local authorities and work of the Energy Saving Trust. The Department does not collect data on the number of grants awarded and their cost through these schemes.

Under the Warm Front scheme, which is the main Government scheme for tackling fuel poverty and is funded by the Department, between June 2000 and December 2003, 3,764 grants were awarded in the Staffordshire area with a total cost of around £2 million. Of these, 1,653 grants were awarded in the Burton area with a cost of £390,000.

Mr. Bercow

: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many homes in Buckingham have benefited from the Home Energy Efficiency Scheme. [161570]

Mr. Morley

: The New Home Energy Efficiency Scheme is now marketed as Warm Front. Between the launch of the scheme in June 2000 and the end of December 2003, 341 households in the Buckingham constituency received assistance from the scheme.