4. Statement by the Minister for Environment, Energy and Rural Affairs: Fuel Poverty Plan

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:45 pm on 2 March 2021.

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Photo of Lesley Griffiths Lesley Griffiths Labour 3:45, 2 March 2021

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.