3. Will the Cabinet Secretary provide an update on funding for the Warm Homes Programme? OAQ(5)0102(ERA)

Thank you. This financial year, we are investing £26.5 million in Welsh Government Warm Homes to improve the energy efficiency of our housing stock and help tackle fuel poverty. I’m currently considering funding options for the next four years and will be making an announcement by the end of March.

Well, I welcome that response, and it will build on the work where, I understand, last year, under Nest and Arbed, something around 8,000 homes were improved with their energy efficiency. And of course, this links to fuel poverty, and that’s what I wanted to ask in my supplementary. The Welsh Government and Cabinet Secretary will be aware of Age Cymru’s statement on fuel poverty, and they’ve made some specific recommendations, building on the work that the Welsh Government has done. They’ve asked for a new strategic approach to tackling fuel poverty, backed by a clear programme and timescales. They’ve asked for robust and regularly updated data on housing stock quality, and reporting on fuel poverty levels. And one of the things they suggest, finally, is that we should consider an ambitious new fuel poverty target based on improving a number of low-income homes to a minimum energy performance certificate rating of C each year. There are other recommendations, but I wonder will she be taking the time to look at the Age Cymru proposals and to respond to them, and to take forward the work that we’ve already been doing in the Welsh Government.

Yes, I am aware of Age Cymru’s statement on fuel poverty and, certainly, we are currently considering the proposals that they’ve recommended in the development of our wider fuel poverty policy going forward. We’ve already responded to many of the proposals that they have brought forward in our response to the Nest consultation that was published just before Christmas. So, for instance, we’re proposing to extend eligibility for a package of Nest home energy improvement measures to low-income households with occupants suffering from certain vulnerable health conditions, and we do have fast-track arrangements in place for eligible vulnerable people, which I think is really important. Also, when my colleague, Carl Sargeant, and I were in our respective portfolios—and now we’ve swapped—we decided that we would have a look at a major new data collection for our housing stock, because we did not have that data that we both felt that we should have. So, we have brought that forward and we’ve issued a joint written statement to Members on that.

I welcome Huw Irranca-Davies’s reference to the Age Cymru report, findings and recommendations. You referred to the consultation on a future demand-led fuel poverty scheme, but the Fuel Poverty Coalition Cymru has expressed concern that, by introducing age requirements in the eligibility criteria proposed, this will deny help to many households in fuel poverty that are currently eligible. How will you, therefore, respond specifically to the Age Cymru statement that the 2010 revised fuel poverty strategy is now out of date, and that Wales and the Welsh Government needs to deliver for Wales a new revised fuel poverty strategy, reflecting not just energy efficiency, important though that is, but all the wider social justice issues linked to this important matter?

Well, I mentioned in my answer to Huw Irranca-Davies that I was looking at the proposals that came from the Age Cymru statement on fuel poverty in the development of our wider fuel poverty policy going forward.