5. Statement by the Minister for Environment, Energy and Rural Affairs: The Warm Homes Programme

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:46 pm on 19 February 2019.

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Photo of Llyr Gruffydd Llyr Gruffydd Plaid Cymru 4:46, 19 February 2019

(Translated)

May I thank the Minister for her statement? And may I say at the outset that I, of course, recognise the contribution that the Warm Homes programme and Nest and Arbed have made in seeking to tackle fuel poverty? But I will say what I always say when I refer to these programmes: the scale of the programmes doesn't correspond to the scale of the challenge facing us in Wales, from the point of view of fuel poverty, never mind climate change. We know that there are almost 500 additional winter deaths related to fuel poverty in Wales every year. We also know that around a quarter of Welsh homes live in fuel poverty and, of course, the statistics are a crisis and a national scandal. And at the current rate of tackling fuel poverty, it would take 48 years for Wales to eradicate fuel poverty. So, that's just how inadequate the response has been, I fear.

So, in extending the Warm Homes programme, can I ask whether you will enhance the resources available, and do that significantly, or are we going to have another additional two years of the same? Because the progress that's been delivered to date, of course, simply isn't sufficient. Now, Plaid Cymru was clear in our manifesto in the last Assembly election that we would have introduced the biggest retrofitting programme that Wales had ever seen, worth £3 billion over a number of years, and that's the kind of ambitious, radical response that is necessary.

And the Government, as you say in your statement, has spent some £248 million over the past 10 years or so, so what's that—around £25 million per annum? But we also know that the Welsh Government spends £100 million per annum on dealing with cold-related hospital admissions.