New Clause 4 - Reports under section 1 of the Sustainable Energy Act 2003: energy efficiency of residential accommodation
Climate Change and Sustainable Energy Bill
2:15 pm
Andrew Stunell (Chief Whip; Hazel Grove, Liberal Democrat)
I very strongly support the new clause moved by the hon. Member for Southampton, Test (Dr. Whitehead). I know from previous debates that the Government do not like making reports and producing targets unless they themselves have set them. It is a question of the Government taking some ownership of the need for progress and for the new clause to be added to the Bill. It is a low-cost option for the Government, as well as a simple step. It is a question that they should be happy and enthusiastic to answer. I very much hope that the Minister will take ownership and accept the new clause.
We need to take a look at how the Government deal with private Members’ Bills and how seriously they take their reporting and accountability role. My own Sustainable and Secure Buildings Act 2004 gave the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister some additional powers to deal with sustainable buildings and housing. The Minister may refer to the fact that a code of practice on sustainable housing is currently out for consultation. He may say that it is premature for targets to be set. He may suggest that the process is working in non-statutory ways and that the Government are expecting the market to deliver or local authorities to act out of the goodness of their hearts or the fatness of their wallets to improve the sustainability of social housing. Perhaps the housing associations are intended to do that.
There is a big gap between the words that Ministers utter in this place and the performance on the ground in new building, let alone anything that might happen with the existing building stock. Accepting the new clause would be a good way for the Minister to unjam the ODPM’s current view about imposing, as it would see it, additional requirements on housing and to ensure that the Government’s intention to improve energy efficiency and to increase the sustainability of housing takes priority. It would send a signal to other Departments, and particularly the ODPM, that it is not enough to rely on the market to produce the environmental and sustainability benefits that everybody in this room wants to see.
I urge the Minister to take a serious look at the new clause. It would not cost him very much, it would send an important signal to other Departments and it could be an important way to help the United Kingdom meet its sustainable energy targets.