Clause 6
Green Energy (Definition and Promotion) Bill
4:00 pm
Martin Horwood (Cheltenham, Liberal Democrat)
I have always wanted to stand against the forces of reaction and I am happy to join the hon. Member for East Surrey on the barricades in favour of many revolutionary measures, but this one in particular, any day. It seems like an eminently sensible measure to introduce. I have heard the Government’s excuses and none seems very convincing. One such excuse is that energy efficiency and mircrogeneration is unlikely to sufficiently increase the value of a property to push it beyond a particular council band boundary. I cannot see how the Government could possibly know that, because if it had only been marginally below it to start with, the prospect of buying a property with much lower energy bills than its neighbour seems to be eminently likely to push it over a small marginal increase that would take it into a higher band.
Another excuse has been that the council tax system already disregards improvements until a property is sold. This is a long-term piece of legislation and one that not only applies when a property is first sold, but in subsequent sales as well. As the hon. Member for Morley and Rothwell quite rightly said, we ought to reward and incentivise such improvements and not, potentially, punish them.