Industrial Strategy Consultation

Baroness Donaghy Excerpts

Monday 23rd January 2017 Lords Chamber

[Lord Prior of Brampton]

We will certainly bear that in mind. Clearly, the rates of tax, whether that is corporation tax, business rates or any other costs to business, are critically important. I take on board his comments about the importance of the rural economy.

[Baroness Donaghy (Lab)]

My Lords, I am glad that the Minister seems to be enjoying his new brief, and I welcome the new Green Paper and its wish list. However, I am a bit concerned about research and development. The same announcement as that in the Green Paper was made last autumn—they are identical—and that is in the context of a 50% cut in research and development since 2010. Therefore, to announce an increase when there has been a real cut over a period of five years seems to be not a good start to the discussion on research and development. The Minister himself has said how important research and development is. Will this be a real increase, and will it be sustainable?

Fuel Poverty

Baroness Donaghy Excerpts

Tuesday 25th October 2016 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Baroness Donaghy]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their estimate of the number of households currently in fuel poverty; and what action they intend to take to reduce that number.

[The Minister of State, Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (Baroness Neville-Rolfe) (Con)]

My Lords, the latest official statistics show that there are 2.38 million households living in fuel poverty in England. We are reforming the energy company obligation to improve the energy efficiency of the households that most need support. Combined with the support from the warm home discount, almost £1 billion a year will be spent on tackling fuel poverty from 2018. We also propose to raise the standards of energy efficiency in the private rented sector.

[Baroness Donaghy (Lab)]

I thank the Minister for her reply. She will know that the Prime Minister said:

“It’s just not right that two-thirds of energy customers are stuck on the most expensive tariffs”.

The Minister will also know that the figures she gave the House are a conservative estimate, because they do not include those who are in need of extra warmth because of old age or ill health. Could she elaborate on the Government’s intentions to achieve this improvement?

[Baroness Neville-Rolfe]

As the noble Baroness said, the Government are very focused on this issue. We are trying to improve the various schemes to focus them more on low-income and vulnerable people. We have a report from the Competition and Markets Authority looking at price, and at the key issue of pre-payment meters, which are extremely important for the poor and vulnerable—and which Lord Ezra, who used to ask questions on this subject, did so much to bring to everyone’s attention.