Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Miatta Fahnbulleh and Sammy Wilson

Tuesday 29th April 2025 Commons Chamber

[Miatta Fahnbulleh]

We are aware of issues that we have had with ECO4 and the Great British insulation scheme. If constituents have been affected, they should have received a letter from Ofgem. They should be able to contact their installer, who is obliged to fix the work, and there is a clear redress mechanism. There is a wider point: we know that the system for quality assurance and consumer redress is not fit for purpose and we are determined to overhaul it.

[Sammy Wilson (East Antrim) (DUP)]

In the 1970s, global warmists wanted to put black dust on the Arctic to block the sun. Now the Minister wants to put black dust on clouds to block the sun again. Is his plan not bonkers? £50 million of taxpayer’s money has been spent, which will only put up energy prices even further.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Miatta Fahnbulleh and Sammy Wilson

Tuesday 4th February 2025 Commons Chamber

[Miatta Fahnbulleh]

I thank the right hon. Gentleman for reminding us about our economic inheritance. We are reaching out to organisations and stakeholders across the country—industry, charities and third sector organisations—to feed into our warm homes plan, so we are keen to hear ideas. We are conscious that we have an ambitious programme and we need to do a big scaling-up of home upgrades across the country, so we are definitely in the market for hearing from and reaching out to organisations that can come up with ideas.

[Sammy Wilson (East Antrim) (DUP)]

Is it not a fact that, regardless of how much money is put into a warm homes scheme, social tariffs or whatever, consumers can never be insulated against the massive cost of the mad net zero policy that will require thousands of new turbines, acres of solar farms and miles of new transmission lines, all at a cost to the consumer? How on earth does the Minister believe that we will deal with the issue of fuel poverty in this country with that cost?

[Miatta Fahnbulleh]

I will say to the right hon. Gentleman that at the moment, families are not insulated from fossil fuel markets. We have seen one of the worst energy crises, which has had a huge impact on the cost of living. The status quo is not tenable. We already have record-high energy prices and the only way that we are going to bear down on that is through clean power. The alternative is to do nothing—but we have seen the impact of doing nothing over the last 14 years and consumers and constituents across the country are the ones being impacted. We will absolutely drive forward with clean power by 2030 because that is our route to providing an energy system that delivers energy security and that can deliver financial security.