Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Chris Huhne and Lord Beith

Thursday 20th October 2011 Commons Chamber

[Chris Huhne]

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for that question. We came away from the energy summit not just having made representations to the energy companies but with a list of specific actions that will help, including, for example, the 4 million letters that will be sent out to vulnerable groups on access to energy saving. We were determined to secure all those points as a result of the energy summit, and we did.

[Sir Alan Beith (Berwick-upon-Tweed) (LD)]

As Rio Tinto has shown itself more determined to sell aluminium plants across the world, including in Lynemouth, than to engage in the discussions that the Secretary of State has been willing to have with it, is he equally willing to have discussions with any new buyer who might be prepared to take on the Lynemouth plant?

[Chris Huhne]

I am grateful to my right hon. Friend for that question. Of course I am. I would be delighted to have discussions. I want to see jobs preserved both at Lynemouth and in the rest of the country. We hope that aluminium can continue to be produced in this country because, in our thrust towards low-carbon transition, we will need aluminium as part of the raw materials for that revolution.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Chris Huhne and Lord Beith

Thursday 10th February 2011 Commons Chamber

[Sir Alan Beith (Berwick-upon-Tweed) (LD)]

19. What recent steps he is taking to improve the energy efficiency of privately rented housing in rural areas.

[The Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change (Chris Huhne)]

I want to see the energy efficiency of privately rented housing improve across the country, including in rural areas. Our green deal, due to be launched in late 2012, will help enable this to happen. It will offer landlords, in both urban and rural areas, a real opportunity to invest in the energy efficiency of their properties at no up-front cost. If they do not, we are taking powers in the Energy Bill to enable tenants to insist on the green deal. Furthermore, we will allow councils to ban rentals in F and G-rated properties. My Department is looking at how best to incentivise renewable heating for those off the gas grid, particularly those in rural areas.

[Sir Alan Beith]

I welcome what my right hon. Friend is doing on this matter, but I ask him to keep in mind the fact that some of the poorest people in my constituency live in former farm cottages that are stone-built, have landlords who are reluctant to improve them, are not connected to a gas supply and are at the mercy of monopolistic heating oil firms.

[Chris Huhne]

I entirely sympathise with my right hon. Friend’s point about the problems that often exist in rural areas. Such problems are often overlooked precisely because they are not necessarily concentrated in large numbers, but poverty, including fuel poverty, can be a dramatic problem in rural areas. The green deal will be particularly helpful to the sort of constituent whom he has mentioned, because there will also be support for hard-to-treat homes, which will involve subsidising solid-wall insulation.