Graham Jones: To probe some of the technical details, the Minister said that local authorities will be involved with F and G-rated homes. How will the measure work with the housing health and safety rating system, which works up to standard assessment procedure rating 38? The measure works up to rating 35 for F properties; how will that align with local authority enforcement and the housing health and...
Graham Jones: It might benefit the Committee if the Minister said who had access to the database. Will it be local authorities only? What about data sharing and consumer rights?
Graham Jones: May I press the Minister and make my point clearer? The internet search engine, rightmove, has a huge portfolio of rented properties. I do not want to advertise it, but it is the No. 1 site, I believe, and it would benefit from having access to the database. Will it be entitled to that information, which would empower consumers?
Graham Jones: May I mention NetMovers, which is based in my constituency and is the fourth largest operator? It has expressed an interest in the proposal, and I hope that the Minister will consider it. Perhaps he will elaborate in future on consumer rights.
Graham Jones: The impact assessment states: “As of 2007, 33% of fuel poor households lived in homes built before 1919 and 43% of the fuel poor households lived in homes without cavity wall insulation” and hard-to-treat homes. A lot of private landlords have hard-to-treat homes. Would the Minister explain how this will work with hard-to-treat homes, particularly in the private rented sector?
Graham Jones: The Minister has the ambitious target—he referred to a revolution—of 2018 being the end point, at which all properties are done. In the middle of that, there are hard-to-treat properties. He says that part of the green deal will move through that, and in my constituency there are many pre-1919 properties. Will he explain how the provisions will include hard-to-treat properties? They are,...
Graham Jones: The hon. Lady makes a good point. Would she take on board the fact that the Minister has made comments about European legislation being preventive, but do things such as the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 allow for works in default to take place on properties? That is an essential tool for local authorities in dealing with absent landlords. One of the particular problems in my...
Graham Jones: I take on board what the Minister says, but to come back to my point, in my short time in Parliament the only commercial enterprise that has been the subject of legislation with a deadline was battery farming, and the commercial companies did not meet that deadline. Whether there should be a guillotine or the deadline should be extended was discussed. The Minister says there is plenty of...
Graham Jones: I appreciate those comments; there is a small degree of logic in them, provided that there is something in the meantime. Seven years is an awfully long time, so if the date is going to be put back by two years, there has to be some evaluation and monitoring in the period to justify the date of 2018. What does the Minister intend to do to monitor and evaluate the time frame, so that we do not...
Graham Jones: I accept the point that the Minister is making, which leads to my next question. If in each year there is not substantive improvement or movement towards his goal, will he review the 2018 date? Is he prepared to be flexible? If the figures for the formative years—2014, 2015 and 2016—do not show the vast tranche of improvements that he says will be done, with only the remnants left for...
Graham Jones: Has the Minister carried out an impact assessment of the likely take-up? He has said that by 2018 only a few landlords will be left and we will be mopping up the remaining properties. What impact assessment justifies his view that the vast majority of landlords will take up the standard naturally?
Graham Jones: Whether his plans for universal credit will ensure that people are better off in work after payment of child care costs.
Graham Jones: Will the Secretary of State ensure that parents who work more than 16 hours a week will continue to get child care support to allow them to continue in work?
Graham Jones: Would it help the Minister—I say this having taken on board the comments of the hon. Member for Devizes—if we met to discuss this issue? It is very important—it is not an insignificant technical detail—and a large volume of customers are affected by it. It might be worth while to have an informal chat about what can be done to assist the Bill and the Minister in providing help for...
Graham Jones: Thank you for your guidance, Mr Leigh, on an earlier clause. It did mention instalments but, given your advice, it is perhaps better to raise the matter while discussing clause 17. I do not wish to repeat what will already be on the record, but pre-payment meters are a huge issue. They are mostly installed in hard-to-treat homes and in the homes of people in fuel poverty, to whom we must...
Graham Jones: Will the green deal charge be the first charge on a pre-payment card? Will it be the first payment to be paid followed by payment for energy that is used?
Graham Jones: I was confused myself about who was speaking and who was not speaking, so I apologise for putting my hand up at the wrong time to indicate that I wanted to speak. I want to come back to the issue of pre-payment metres, which keeps being mentioned. It is a huge issue. The statistics about pre-payment meters and the associated difficulties show that these will not only be hard to treat...
Graham Jones: Thank you, Mr. Leigh. The matter was mentioned by various speakers, but I will take your advice and discuss it in the clause stand part debate.
Graham Jones: The use of pre-payment meters is an important issue that needs to be discussed, because so many people are affected by pre-payment meters. I do not want to go back over the points that I have just made. However, I want to refer to subsection (2)(a)(i), which deals with “the payments in instalments and the interval at which, and period for which, they are payable”. On pre-payment meters,...
Graham Jones: This may be going back over a point, but I would like clarification on it. I am concerned about assessors being linked to green deal providers, although I understand the Minister’s comments. I am also concerned about the cost of the service, although he has said that that will be on the front of the assessment. As he has mentioned, there may be contractual obligations; it may be that the...