We now move on to a statement by the Minister for Environment, Energy and Rural Affairs on the fuel poverty plan, and I call on the Minister, Lesley Griffiths, to move the statement.

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Our plan to tackle fuel poverty, published today, reaffirms our commitment to deliver social justice in the transition to a net-zero economy in Wales.

Our commitment to tackling fuel poverty has been consistent over the long term, with our Warm Homes programme investing more than £350 million over 10 years, benefiting more than 60,000 households. This long-term commitment has been vital during the longest period of austerity in our history, imposed by the decisions of the UK Government.

During this Senedd term, we have continued to raise housing standards. Through the innovative housing programme, we have invested more than £145 million to shape the market by creating exemplary new housing developments, liveable, low carbon and supporting local supply chains. In contrast to typical energy costs of £1,300 a year, the annual energy bills of these homes have been reduced to as low as £200. The learning from this scheme, alongside our optimised retrofit programme, is being integrated into our core housing programmes to ensure that this becomes the way all homes are built and retrofit in the future.

Our Welsh Government energy service, created in 2018, has supported the expansion of community energy projects that can give citizens a stake in their own energy supply, as well as delivering affordable, low-carbon electricity and heat. Next year, we will update the Welsh housing quality standard to require energy performance in social homes to achieve the highest A rating, working with businesses, the education sector and trade unions to establish centres of excellence for housing retrofit, to support the necessary creation of a highly skilled workforce to install properly accredited, whole-house energy systems.

Last October, I announced our domestic energy advice and support pilot, which is now well under way. This builds upon our experience of delivering energy efficiency improvements to enhance the support we can offer, ensuring people gain the maximum possible benefit by addressing barriers beyond the thermal performance of their home itself. These pilots are trialling approaches to support vulnerable households to get the best energy deals available, helping people to move off pre-payment meters and onto smart meters, and to secure all entitlements available to them from UK Government and energy companies, in addition to the support from Welsh Government. All of these measures are upholding social justice in the transition to net zero. They are directly benefiting those households in the greatest need, and delivering practical measures on behalf of everyone in Wales, which otherwise would have to be paid for from the household budgets of those who can least afford it.

The experience we have drawn from the actions we have taken over the long term, and the innovative approaches we've developed in recent years, have all informed the new plan we have now published to continue to reduce levels of fuel poverty over the next 15 years. The plan continues to target the support we make available for home energy efficiency for the benefit of lower income households who are living in, or are at risk of, fuel poverty. Within this, a particular focus is given to the most thermally inefficient homes, and consistent with our commitment to clean air and climate justice, working towards ending our reliance on the burning of coal and heating oil in a way that provides a fair transition for those who currently have little or no other choice.

The plan has benefited from extensive public consultation, as well as engagement with Welsh third sector organisations who share our deep commitment to this issue. The plan has been informed by the landscape report into fuel poverty in Wales, published by Audit Wales, and by the work undertaken by the Senedd's Climate Change, Environment and Rural Affairs Committee inquiry into fuel poverty. The engagement that has guided the development of this plan will continue as we develop a new advisory panel, and interim targets that will strengthen and focus our efforts to deliver the obligations enshrined in law in the Warm Homes and Energy Conservation Act 2000. Further formal consultation is scheduled for summer this year to inform the creation of the next iteration of the Warm Homes programme by a new Government in the next Senedd.

Energy costs have impacted households even more heavily in recent months, as a result of the coldest winter season for 10 years, combined with the need to stay at home to keep Wales safe from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this context, I was deeply disappointed to learn the energy regulator has announced an increase of 9 per cent in the domestic tariff cap from April. Whilst some of the increase is attributed to increased wholesale energy prices, a significant proportion is to alleviate the bad debt provision energy suppliers are having to make to support vulnerable bill payers through the pandemic.

The increase in energy arrears is surely a signal of the pressure households in Wales and other parts of the UK are under. Adding further costs onto lower income bill payers will simply add to the suffering of thousands of families, who cannot change suppliers to get a better deal whilst they remain in debt. I have called on the regulator and the UK Government to act to reverse this decision, so as not to undermine our society's recovery from the impact of the pandemic. The cost of delivering an energy system fit for the twenty-first century should not be disproportionately shouldered by those hard-pressed families who are least able to pay.

This issue serves to illustrate that the climate emergency is a matter of social justice. The advice we received last December from our independent statutory advisers, the Climate Change Committee, highlights the scale of investment required to deliver zero-carbon buildings whilst meeting our obligations to tackle fuel poverty. Their advice also recognises that effective emissions reduction in Wales requires the UK Government to play its part where they hold the levers and the ability to make investment at such scale.

The plan of action I am publishing today sets out the way in which the Welsh Government will use all levers available to us, pushing the limits of our devolved powers to take a proactive role in securing social justice in the transition to net zero through our action to tackle fuel poverty in Wales. Thank you.

Well, following publication of your fuel poverty plan today, 'Tacking fuel poverty 2021-2035', it seems the plan is largely the same as the draft proposals, and while we certainly welcome the short-term actions, we're very disappointed in particular that there are still no interim milestones between now and 2035. How do you respond to the subsequent statement by National Energy Action, NEA Cymru, that the Welsh Government has fallen short of its statutory duties, and that unless urgently addressed, thousands of people living in the coldest and most expensive to heat homes may not be helped for years to come? As they say, several years after the previous targets to eradicate the scourge of cold homes in Wales were missed, fuel poverty continues to be a devastating problem. Over 150,000 households can't afford to heat and power their homes and COVID-19 has made this challenge starker, with many people at home using more energy, owing more and earning less.

As well as setting a final target for action to end fuel poverty in Wales, the Welsh Government has a legal duty to introduce supporting milestones to set a path to the final target. How do you therefore respond to their statement that although the Welsh Government says that it will consider these interim targets in 2023, today's plan does not include this legal requirement, and that there needs to be a clear commitment to eliminating the most severe fuel poverty by the end of this decade at the very latest, with this milestone and the final target put on a statutory basis to ensure they have legal standing and cannot be dismissed by future administrations? 

Are you aware that there was also near universal support during the consultation for the Welsh Government to meet its legal duty to specify interim targets, and that both the Fuel Poverty Coalition Cymru and the cross-party group on fuel poverty and energy efficiency also wrote to you on this issue, stressing the importance of this being addressed in the final plan? Do you understand that failure to introduce any interim targets would result in there being no effective way of ensuring the worst affected households, those in most severe fuel poverty, are assisted as a priority before the final target date, and will you therefore address this key omission in the plan as soon as possible?

Although the plan makes two brief references to health in the context of winter resilience and consulting on eligibility for support beyond March 2023, a further two years down the road, why has the Welsh Government not committed within the plan to longer term measures to joined-up action on fuel poverty within the health sector, alongside the commitment to reach net zero? Although your plan states that it will ensure that people in most need receive the most appropriate package of support, so that they can always continue to heat their homes, how does it address Fuel Poverty Coalition Cymru's call, in its submission to you, for the worst first to be prioritised, accelerating action for those most in need in accordance with the clear principle embedded in the 2010 strategy? Where is the detail? Where are the actions?

How do you respond to the reality that although fixing Wales's cold, leaky housing, and reducing needless energy costs, is fundamental, the Welsh Government has also missed the opportunity to introduce fuel poverty targets related to upgrading the energy efficiency of homes, where helping improve homes, especially for those living on the lowest incomes, is directly in the control of the Welsh Government, and should have been a clear priority? Your plan states that the standard assessment procedure methodology under which homes are given an energy performance certificate, or EPC, will continue to provide the basis of the Welsh housing conditions survey and the setting of domestic energy efficiency targets. However, how do you respond to the statement by the Fuel Poverty Coalition Cymru to you that at least one additional EPC target should be included, at minimum, to match the statutory target in England for all fuel-poor households to reach EPC band C by 2030?

Finally, how do you respond to calls by the National Residential Landlords Association for the Welsh Government to ring-fence grant funding to tackle fuel poverty in the private rented sector because that is at the heart of the problem due to the age of the stock; to support local authorities by funding personnel to conduct monitoring and administration of ECO, or energy company obligation funding, to end the postcode lottery in Wales where some councils don't have the resources; and, finally, to replicate the UK Government's green homes grant to upgrade homes including the private rented sector in England—the homes not reached by the Welsh Government's current Warm Homes scheme? Diolch. 

Thank you, Mark Isherwood, for that list of questions. In relation to the interim targets, I am of course aware of the call for interim targets, but I have to say, most proposals within today's plan were welcomed by our stakeholders. I think to set interim targets now, over a shorter time frame, would prove to be a really futile exercise, until we can better understand the impact of the pandemic. You referred to the impact that the pandemic has had on people living in fuel poverty; it has obviously increased, unfortunately, the number of people living in fuel poverty. I absolutely recognise that a number of stakeholders have said that the plan should include those interim targets in order to meet our statutory obligation.

A number of suggested interim targets were put forward during the consultation, such as eradicating severe fuel poverty by 2028, for instance. There was another one that suggested by 2030. We've considered all of these interim targets. Without revised fuel poverty estimates and updated projections to determine what can be achieved by 2035, interim targets set in the current climate that we are in, I think, would be speculative and potentially unrealistic, whereas the targets that we have set, I think, are absolutely realistic. So, what I've asked my officials to do is to work with the stakeholders—you'll be aware of our new fuel poverty advisory group—to develop those interim targets. They can then be considered in the light of the new fuel poverty estimates that we're preparing. The interim targets when they are developed will then be added to the plan.

You referred to health issues, and obviously we've had our health conditions pilot, which you'll be aware of, and that was expanded in July 2019. We've had over 8,600 referrals received by Nest, and more than 1,000 homes have benefited from the scheme. As part of the extended pilot, the eligibility criteria for support was also expanded to include people living on a lower income not in receipt of a means-tested benefit, at risk of avoidable ill health caused or exacerbated by living in a cold home, or living in a home with an EPC rating of D or worse.

You referred to the UK Government's green homes voucher scheme, and we absolutely agree that investment in home energy efficiency is important—the key to support the economic recovery as we emerge from the coronavirus pandemic, along with all the other reasons for it. What we don't agree with the UK Government on is that the best way to do it is by way of a voucher scheme similar to the one that they've brought forward. There are issues regarding the quality of workmanship that can be attained within a very tight delivery timescale. That could potentially store up trouble for householders in the future. You'll be aware that the green homes voucher scheme was launched last summer, by the Chancellor, as part of measures he introduced. But because of delays in processing applications and the capacity of the supply chain to deliver, the scheme has now been extended to March 2022.

If you look at it very carefully, the scheme is not as generous as first reported. Householders, unless they're on means-tested benefits, are required to pay a third of the cost of any home energy efficiency measure installed under the scheme. Windows and doors, which have attracted so much media attention, are secondary measures only, and the value of the contribution is limited to the value invested in primary measures such as insulation, for instance, or low-carbon heating systems. So, again, a householder receiving a £1,000 two-thirds contribution towards an air source heat pump, for instance, would receive a maximum of £1,000 towards new windows. So, it is a scheme that applies to England only, but I would urge you to look closer at it, because, as I say, it's not as generous as it was first reported.

In relation to the private rented sector, I heard your and others' calls for ring fencing of funding. You are quite right when you say that a lot—I think it's about 40 per cent—of private rented stock in Wales is over 100 years old. So, we know that households in the private rented sector are more likely to be fuel poor. Obviously, tenants are eligible to apply for energy efficiency advice through the Nest scheme, and approximately a quarter of the households currently are benefiting from the Nest scheme.

I'd like to thank the Minister for her statement and for the plan that was shared with us earlier today. I would like to begin with where I do agree with the Minister. She is absolutely right to make that commitment to deliver social justice, as we transition to a net-zero economy in Wales. She has my full support on that. And I would want to associate myself with her comments in her statement about the energy regulator's 9 per cent domestic tariff cap. It is absolutely inconceivable to me that families in poor communities like Llanelli, where people are just about struggling to make their bills, should be penalised with that kind of possible raise, and I'm very glad to hear that the Minister is continuing to make representations to attempt to get this punitive potential decision reversed. 

What I would say, though, is that we're disappointed in the plan. It's not as ambitious as we would have liked it to be, and clearly the next Welsh Government will have to do better and go further. One of the things that we would want to consider is the possibility of developing a national energy company, similar to Dŵr Cymru, our national water company, to provide people purchasing energy in Wales with an option where we would have indirect control over the kinds of tariffs that were being charged. I wonder if that's something that, if the Minister is part of the next Government, she would consider.

In response to Mark Isherwood, the Minister didn't quite set out for me, or perhaps I missed it, where the differences are in the final plan from the original draft. The Minister has referred to the considerable efforts that were made, for example, by third sector organisations, by partners, to make representations, and yet—I must admit that this is our first reading, Deputy Presiding Officer—it doesn't seem to have had, the consultation, a very big impact on what the Minister has finally decided. So, I wonder if the Minister can tell us today, and perhaps give us one or two examples, where she has taken on board those ideas from the consultation. 

The Minister, of course, will be aware of the Welsh Government's target for 30 per cent of people to continue working from or close to home. Those who are working from home may see an increase, of course, in their fuel bills, and I have a concern that that may tip some families on just above poverty wages into fuel poverty. I wonder if the Minister has given that any consideration as she develops her plan.

I wonder if the Minister can explain to us why she's decided to set less ambitious targets than the 2018 plan. There may be good reasons for that, but I think it would be helpful for us to understand it. And can she tell us how she will ensure that this plan doesn't operate in a silo and that it does speak effectively to other Welsh Government departments—to the department for the economy, skills, where we will need to be upskilling people to do this work on homes, and, of course, the housing department, which is actually essential? 

The Minister says she doesn't think it would have been feasible or appropriate to set those staging post interim targets, but I'm sure she will acknowledge that that is a statutory obligation. This is not something that's just been expressed as an opinion by people in the third sector, that that ought to be done. I do understand the point that she makes that it's difficult to set those interim targets while we don't know the full impact of the pandemic, but can she say a bit more about what the process will be for ensuring that those targets are set, and when she expects to be able to set them? There may be some difficulties there, I appreciate, because we don't yet know where we're going with the pandemic, but I think it would be helpful for people to understand that. 

Two more points very briefly, if I may. Can she set out how the well-being goals in the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 were used to generate this plan, and how they've informed the Government's work in this very important area? And finally, on the three long-term objectives, there should be no households estimated to be living in severe or persistent fuel poverty by 2035 'as far as reasonably practicable'. Now, I believe, and the Minister will correct me if I'm wrong, that that's a term that has a legal meaning. But it has been received by some in the sector as a qualifying target and saying 'Well, we'll decide whether we can do this or not'. Now, I don't think that is the Minister's intention, but I wonder if she can explain to us why she has decided to use that phrase 'as far as reasonably practicable' in two of the three long-term objectives. I'm sure that there is a good reason for that. I'm sure it is not her intention to water down the commitment, but I hope that she can give—not me, because that doesn't matter—those interested in the sector some clarity in this regard.   

Thank you, Helen Mary Jones, for those comments and questions. I think you make a really important point around skills, and certainly, as we come out of the pandemic and we have that green recovery and that reconstruction, it's really important that in our efforts to tackle fuel poverty, which have been hampered over the past year particularly, we ensure that skills and jobs are an important part of that recovery. If you look at the number of jobs that Nest and Arbed, our Warm Homes programme, have brought forward, you'll see that's clearly an area where we have, I think, brought added value on top of our Warm Homes programme.

You are right about people working from home, and it's clearly depressed household incomes further, and clearly we know it is reasonable to conclude that the increased cost of domestic energy, reduced household incomes, people working from home, et cetera, will have pushed many households into fuel poverty. That was one of the reasons, as I stressed to Mark Isherwood, around the interim targets, but once they are developed—and I mentioned that we will continue to work with stakeholders and with the new fuel poverty advisory group—those interim targets will be used as part of the plan.

You asked about cross-Government, and I think probably this is absolutely cross-Government, it sits in so many portfolios, alongside my own. I've just referred to skills, but I suppose housing is where we've had the biggest impact, and we know in relation to decarbonisation, for instance, it's going to be critical to meeting the net-zero target by 2050 that we've just—. I've received and accepted the advice from the UK CCC, so the committee gave us advice on boilers, for instance, about the lifetime of 15 years and advised a phase-out for the installation of fossil fuel boilers in advance of 2035. So, I'm working very closely with my colleague Julie James around that. She and I have also accepted the decarbonisation of houses report that Chris Joffe did for the Welsh Government, so that will also have an impact too.

You asked me about—I've made notes—the targets, and I think we've been ambitious, but you've got to be realistic and pragmatic as well, and I think the ambitions in the fuel poverty action plan that we have set out are realistic, and for me, that's important going forward and a part of the—. You asked me about what had changed, and there are several things that stakeholders and the members of the group brought forward. So, I'm trying to think of some examples to give you, but certainly one of the things that they think we should really have a focus on is smart meters, for instance. Now, I think, unfortunately, the UK Government don't keep the number of houses in Wales that have smart meters. I can't tell you what the specific number is, but, certainly, looking at the percentage across the UK, we do think we are on a par with other countries in Great Britain. But I think it is something that we could make people more aware of. I don't think people are aware of smart meters in the way that they could be, so that was one area that we certainly looked at, and obviously, the thermal efficiency of Welsh homes and maintaining that fabric first approach was something that came over very strongly in the consultation and the discussions.

We are looking at the estimates of fuel poverty, so I've asked for those to be revised, because I think that is really important, taking this forward, and that will be reported in the summer to the new Government, and, again, we will work with stakeholders to make recommendations that then can be adopted in the next 12 months. So, this isn't the end of this, this is the beginning, there's still further work to do in relation to it. 

I very much welcome the statement by the Minister, but fuel poverty can't be dealt with in isolation to poverty, it's part of poverty, and food poverty and fuel poverty are just different sides of the same coin. The definition of spending 10 per cent of your available income on fuel means that those who control their fuel costs cannot be caught in fuel poverty by definition, but are incredibly fuel poor. I know people who go to bed at 6.30 or 7 at night in order to cut their fuel costs. They are fuel poor. Also, improved fuel efficiency may not decrease how much you spend, but people will be warmer, less ill, and I would argue that would be a success.

I welcome the Welsh Government's commitment to tackling fuel poverty with the Warm Homes programme, investing more than £350 million over 10 years, benefiting more than 60,000 households. But I, like the Minister, was deeply disappointed to learn the energy regulator has announced an increase of 9 per cent in domestic tariff caps from April. I understand some of the increase is attributed to increased wholesale prices, but a significant proportion is to alleviate the bad debt provision energy suppliers are having to make to support vulnerable bill payers through the pandemic, and this is only likely to get worse after the pandemic. Is there anything that we as Members can do to highlight the increase and pressurise the Tory Westminster Government to reverse this decision? Because we talk about being in fuel poverty, and the more you have to pay for your fuel, the more likely you are to be in fuel poverty.

I don't disagree with Mike Hedges at all. Of course, if you are living in fuel poverty, you will probably be in food poverty and other types of poverty. And, having been the Minister for tackling poverty a few years ago, again, it needs that cross-Government approach that Helen Mary Jones referred to to ensure that all Ministers are looking at their own policies and protocols and portfolios to ensure we are doing absolutely everything we can. But, as I said, we're on the back of a decade of austerity and, unfortunately, too many people are still living in fuel poverty and other forms of poverty here in Wales. 

I was incredibly disappointed to see that 9 per cent tariff cap announced by Ofgem, and the First Minister and I met with Ofgem last week, where we raised our concerns face to face, and I've also written to Ofgem and to the UK Government asking them to reconsider that decision. But, you asked what Members can do, well you, too, can certainly ensure that the UK Government are in no doubt about our concern. We will continue to do all we can. As you said, the Warm Homes programme has been very successful since we launched it back in 2011. We've put in significant investment, probably around £366 million, which has delivered improved energy and thermal efficiency of more than 61,400 homes, and more than 144,000 people have received home energy efficiency advice through the Nest helpline. That's something I've been really keen to ensure, that people are aware of the Nest helpline. And, again, perhaps Members, within their own constituencies and regions, could promote that helpline. 

Thank you, Minister, for your statement giving us this update this afternoon. Now, you'll be aware of the fuel poverty report published by the Climate Change, Environment and Rural Affairs Committee in April last year, and one of the recommendations of that report is that the new fuel poverty strategy should include provisions aimed at addressing the distinct challenges faced in rural areas. And it goes on to say that this should include a bespoke programme with appropriate levels of funding that take account of the more complex and costly measures required to address rural fuel poverty. You did, of course, accept that recommendation and went on to say that energy inefficient homes are disproportionately found in rural areas and so people living in these areas have an increased likelihood of living in a cold home. Therefore, given your recognition of the issue in rural areas, in response to that specific recommendation, can you tell us what action the Welsh Government has been taking to address the issue of fuel poverty in rural areas like the ones that I represent? And can you also tell us what targeted support is being provided or will now be provided to address this challenge, and what bespoke programme are you now developing as a Government, as recommended by the committee? 

Thank you, Paul. I certainly welcomed the report that was published by the committee in April, and I've accepted all 21 of their recommendations. And I think the evidence that the committee took really chimed with the evidence that was taken as we developed the draft plan. And I think the plan that I published today illustrates where we've amended our actions so that we can take into account the recommendations from the committee. 

You're quite right about rural areas. Obviously, many homes are off the grid, and they obviously rely on different forms of heating. So, the provision to provide additional financial support for households who are off grid and in rural areas is made within the existing Warm Homes programme. Households with a lower EPC rating who are situated in off-grid areas can be granted funding of up to £12,000 to help improve their home energy efficiency, and we know that communities who live in rural areas experience different challenges to those who live in more urbanised areas in Wales, so on that basis, the rationale for the different approach for rural areas will be set out in the consultation that I referred to, which is planned on the next iteration for the Warm Homes programme. We've also got emergency payments, I should stress, also, through our discretionary assistance fund and they've been made available for people to people to buy liquid gas and oil during this winter, and this pilot's supported more than 43 households who've received payments for more than £6,400 this winter.

And finally, Jenny Rathbone.

Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer. Thank you very much indeed for announcing that the WHQS is going to be raised to the highest A rating standard, which I know will be really, really good news to the tenant I was speaking to last week who lives in a no-fines home—you'll recall that this is one without a cavity—and in addition, he lives on the end of a terrace, so the heating simply doesn't cope with warming the home. They are permanently living in a cold home, so I hope that this is going to be just the first of many initiatives to build back fairer and also drive down our carbon emissions.

Specifically, in the climate change report that you referred to, I noticed that there were only 8,000 air- and ground-source heat pumps being used in Wales, which seems incredibly low for all those who are not able to access gas, and obviously, as a result, are having much more expensive heating than they need to, and because they're in rural areas mainly, why are we not using more of that technology, which after the insulation produces much cheaper electricity?

My other question is around what we're going to do about the appalling heating arrangements in many, many of our private rented homes, and the National Residential Landlords Association wants somebody else to do something about this, when I feel that there is a duty on private landlords to ensure that their homes are fit for renting. So, whilst we're raising the A rating to social housing, what proposals do you have to raise the minimum standards of fuel efficiency for private rented homes as well, as part of their licensing arrangements and also to increase the reach of Arbed, not just to the lowest super-output areas that have very, very poor ratings at the moment, but to all homes that have very, very poor ratings, because people are suffering wherever they're living?

Thank you. In relation to heat pumps, one of the issues we have had—and as you say, why we're not using that technology more—is around supply, and I think as we see more supply come to the fore, we will be able to do that, and certainly I mentioned in an earlier answer around different boilers being phased out, that is something that we will have to seek to improve on.

In relation to the private rented sector, again—and I referred to this in an earlier answer—more than 40 per cent of our private rented sector housing in Wales is over 100 years old and that obviously shows that about 20 per cent of those households are living in fuel poverty, so clearly we need to look at that very carefully. We do have regulations; we have the minimum energy efficiency standards; they were imposed on the private rented sector; the regulations are obviously enforced by local authorities; they've got powers from Rent Smart Wales that carry that out. And it does mean that since 2018, so three years ago, private landlords may not let domestic properties on new tenancies to new or existing tenants if the EPC rating is F or G, unless an exemption applies. And then from last year, from I think it was April last year, the prohibition of letting EPC F and G properties will extend to all relevant properties, even when there's been no change in tenancy. This is something—. I referred in an earlier answer to the exemplar houses that Julie James has brought forward, our innovative housing programme. We need to ensure that nobody's left behind, that all parts of the housing sector are included in more improved energy efficiency.

Thank you very much, Minister.