Member News
By Luciana Berger - 6th June 2011
Without a clear level of ambition the Green Deal could fail before it starts, that’s why ministers should back the Warm Homes amendment, writes shadow climate change minister Luciana Berger.
The government’s Energy Bill reaches committee stage in the House of Commons tomorrow. The bill's main proposal is to establish a pay as you save energy efficiency scheme called the Green Deal.
Under the Green Deal, homeowners and tenants will be able to make energy efficiency improvements to their homes, such as installing insulation, with no upfront costs. The measures will be paid for in instalments from the money saved on utility bills.
A better Energy Bill could minimise the anticipated rise in fuel bills. This is absolutely vital, especially with the Bank of England predicting an increase of between 10 and 15 per cent for gas and electricity prises between now and March 2012. Anything to mitigate against these rises would surely be welcomed by households whose budgets are already severely squeezed.
Ministers are very quick to talk up the Green Deal’s potential. Chris Huhne has called it "the most ambitious energy-saving plan ever put forward". Unfortunately, in its current form that’s exactly what the bill lacks. A clearly laid out plan as to how much the Green Deal will reduce the UK’s carbon emissions and how progress will be monitored, does not exist.
That’s why Labour has tabled the Warm Homes Amendment. The amendment seeks to link the Green Deal to the UK’s legally binding targets to eliminate fuel poverty by 2016 and reduce our carbon emissions by at least 42 per cent by 2020. Without this commitment ministers risk squashing business confidence and the Green Deal could become a green flop.
When I asked climate change minister Greg Barker about adopting this proposal, he said that rather than creating new targets we should focus on making real changes. But, our national targets have already been agreed to. In fact only a few weeks ago the government extended them by agreeing to the Committee on Climate Change’s fourth carbon budget. This amendment is not about introducing new targets; it is about making sure ministers deliver on the commitments they have already made.
Since Labour first proposed the Warm Homes Amendment during the House of Lords committee stage, support for it has grown. A coalition of 70 organsiations including NGOs, trade unions, businesses and trade associations are backing the plans.
And it’s not just big organsations that want to see this change either. The proposals are also supported by the public. A survey by You Gov in May found that more than half the population (54%) want their MPs to support improvements to the Bill that would link the Green Deal to existing carbon reduction targets.
If done properly the Green Deal could mean lower fuel bills and reduced carbon emissions. To make this happen, the Government needs to set a clear level of ambition for the scheme, along with a plan for achieving it. The Warm Homes Amendment will do this and that’s why ministers should back it.
Luciana Berger is shadow minister for energy and climate change.
Article Comments
The Federation of Private Residents Associations have represented the interests of long leaseholders since 1971 believe the Government's policy on energy efficiency discriminates against around two million leasehold flat-dwellers who are currently being excluded from carrying out many home insulation initiatives as a result of conflicts with legislation or because there is no provision for this in their leases.
Much legislation on energy efficiency and certainly the legislation that provides for grants currently exclude many of those people living in leasehold flats because the grants are aimed at individuals that purchase in their own names rather than through communal arrangements. It is therefore not practical for the leasehold owner of a flat to take most of the steps that a freehold house owner can take to improve the energy efficiency of his or her home.
Measures such as loft insulation and cavity wall insulation obviously have to be taken up for the block as a whole rather than each individual.
Our legal advisor Dr Nick Roberts first highlighted the issue in an excellent article published last year in the New Law Journal.
The Federation of Private Residents Association believes that this could be achieved in the following way.
Section 35 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1987 already provides for long leases of flats to be varied by the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal if they are defective in certain designated ways (e.g. if the service charge arrangements are defective, or if there are inadequate provisions for insurance). We are suggesting that s 35 should be amended to provide that the failure of a lease to make adequate provision for the reasonable insulation of a property should be a ground for its variation.
Section 35(2)(g) of the LTA 1987 (added by 162(3) of the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002) already makes provision for additional grounds for variation of leases to be added to s 35 by Regulation, so this is a matter which could be dealt with by Statutory Instrument and not by primary legislation. Expressly providing that the lease should provide only for 'reasonable' insulation would automatically mean that, in the event of any dispute arising as to whether the measures proposed were reasonable, a further application could be made to the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal under s 19 or s 27A LTA 1985 in order to resolve the issue.
Bob Smytherman
7th Jun 2011 at 10:48 am
The lack of infomation and the time lag between the announcement by the Government that the Green Deal is going to happen and actually creating any sort of structure to the Green Deal is going to be the biggest problem.
I have read all sorts of articles about the Green Deal some say that solar panels will be part of the Green Deal other saying that they won't.
All people want is information and in my view the sooner the better before negative publicity destroys the Deal before it has even begun.
kris
6th Jun 2011 at 5:46 pm
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