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
Malcolm Wicks (Minister for energy, Department of Trade and Industry; Croydon North, Labour)
We do indeed support new clause 4. Back in 2004, we published a new residential energy efficiency aim, as required by the Sustainable Energy Act 2003. We felt that we could save 3.5 million tonnes of carbon emitted from homes in England. Later that year, the Housing Act 2004 set a second target for household energy efficiency, requiring the Secretary of State to take reasonable steps to improve residential energy efficiency by 20 per cent. by 2010, with the year 2000 as the baseline.
The Housing Act 2004 did not require the Government to publish a report on progress toward the energy efficiency targets. The reporting requirement in the 2003 Act was addressed by the Energy Act of 2004, which obliges the Government to report annually on progress. Therefore, it seems logical to include in the Bill before us an equivalent reporting requirement for the Housing Act 2004 and its targets.
Should the Bill obtain Royal Assent with the clause in place, we would fulfil its requirements as part of the Government’s annual reports on implementation of the energy White Paper objectives. That would be consistent with the approach currently taken for other reporting obligations under the Sustainable Energy Act 2003. I am bound to say that combining those reports would also be energy efficient. I am pleased to confirm that the Government fully support the clause.