Background
The Act was a Private Members measure taken through the House of Commons by Brian White MP and through the House of Lords by Baroness Diana Maddock. Its effect is far wider than fuel poverty, but this brief concerns only the fuel poverty aspects of the Act. For a wider brief contact the Sustainable Energy Partnership1, which organised the campaign in support of the Bill.
Section 1: Annual reports on progress towards sustainable energy aims
‘The Secretary of State must in each calendar year, beginning with 2004, publish a report on the progress made in the reporting period towards….. (d) reducing the number of people living in fuel poverty in the United Kingdom.’
- The meaning of this is very clear – there must be an annual report on progress towards ‘reducing the number of people’ in fuel poverty. There are three aspects of this that warrant special mention:
- This will be a statutory report and has legal implications regarding its accuracy: an inaccurate statutory report could be challengeable in the High Court as a failure to discharge a statutory duty.
- The report must apply to the whole of the UK.
- The report must provide information on ‘reducing the number of people in fuel poverty’. The emboldened words are particularly important. Lessening the degree of fuel poverty will not count; the number of fuel poor households for whom heating and insulation improvements have been carried out will also not count: the requirement is to report on the reductions of the numbers of people in fuel poverty. This could be extremely significant.
- In addition to this requirement on the face of the Bill, the (then) Energy Minister, Stephen Timms gave an assurance2 during Committee Stage that the report would extend to all the commitments made in the Energy White Paper. The commitments are all listed on the Government’s Sustainable Energy Policy Network (SEPN) website3. The commitments that affect fuel poverty, and which must be reported on annually, are:
- SFP* 1: The implementation of the fuel poverty strategy.
- SFP 2: The evaluation and development of programmes.
- SFP 3: The work of the Fuel Poverty Advisory Group and equivalents outside England.
- SFP 4: The extension of the gas supply network.
- EE+ 3: The development of the Energy Efficiency Commitment (EEC) beyond 2005. (The way in which EEC is operated could have serious effects on the reduction of fuel poverty.)
- EE 6: ‘Improvements in household energy efficiency of 5MtC by 2010 and a further 4-6MtC by 2020.’ The significance of this is that this level of improvement of household energy efficiency would have considerable effects on fuel poverty as well as on CO2 reduction.
- EE 19: Local authorities and RSLs to bring their housing stock up to a decent standard by 2010. The significance of this is that the decent homes standard will not mean that householders are removed from fuel poverty as it has been set far too low:4 so the requirement of the report on the face of the Act regarding ‘reducing the number of people living in fuel poverty in the United Kingdom’ could well produce an interesting and illuminating ‘clash’ of information.
Section 2: Requirement to set residential energy efficiency aim
‘The Secretary of State must within one week beginning with the coming into force of this section designate at least one (residential) energy efficiency aim.’
- This is a crucial section for both carbon reduction policies and fuel poverty. The aim set would become a statutory objective. A robust aim would indicate real commitment to residential energy efficiency, with all that that implies for eradicating fuel poverty. A weak or derisory aim would send a message that the commitment is more to warm words than real action.
- For this reason this All Party Group is supporting the campaign organised by Brian White MP and the Sustainable Energy Partnership to ensure that the aim is the 20% improvement in domestic energy efficiency by 2010 based on 1991 levels, as recommended by the Cabinet Office Performance and Innovation Unit (PIU) Report 2002.
- This section comes into force ‘on such day as the Secretary of State may by order made by statutory instrument appoint’ – and one week later the aim must be specified. The commencement order is expected to tie in with the publication of the White Paper Energy Efficiency Implementation Plan, now expected to be published in April 2004. Thus the aim should be set in April.
Section 3: Requirement to set residential energy efficiency aim in Wales
‘The National Assembly for Wales’ must within one week beginning with the coming into force of this section designate at least one (residential) energy efficiency aim.’
- The requirement to set a statutory residential energy efficiency aim also applies to the Assembly as regards Wales. A ‘Statement of Opinion’ (the Assembly equivalent to an Early Day Motion) signed by a majority of back bench Assembly Members has called for the Welsh ‘aim’ to support the UK target of a 5MtC saving by 2010 and to set their aim of achieving a specific Welsh share of that target.
- This section comes into force ‘on such day as the National Assembly for Wales may by order made by statutory instrument appoint’ – and one week later the aim must be specified. No date has yet been set for this, but it should follow closely on the setting of the aim in England as discussed above.
Section 3 – Energy Conservation Authorities
- This section enables (but does not require) the Secretary of State (as regards England) and the National Assembly for Wales (as regards Wales) to give directions to energy conservation authorities requiring them to take measures to achieve a specified increased level of domestic energy efficiency in their area. The direction may apply to one or more or all energy conservation authorities, but before issuing any such direction the Local Government Association must be consulted.
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1 Sustainable Energy Partnership. Westgate House, Prebend Street, London N1 8PT
2 Standing Committee Debate, June 24 2003
3 http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/+/http://www.dti.gov.uk/energy/policy-strategy/sepn/index.html
4 The Thermal Comfort criterion element of the standard governs heating and insulation specifications but is totally inadequate for the purpose of removing households from fuel poverty
* SEPN workstream: Social (including Fuel Poverty)
+ SEPN workstream: Energy Efficiency