I'm delighted to be contributing to this afternoon’s debate on our committee report on fuel poverty and the Warm Homes programme. I would like to thank our Chair, Jenny Rathbone, for steering us through a significant number of important issues, which, in this period of economic challenge, have become even more important for families the length and breadth of Wales. Fuel poverty, the risk to families’ health and well-being as we enter the coldest months of the year, with prices already much higher than a few months ago, is a threat that this Senedd and this Welsh Government need to respond to. Indeed, we are in a different place to when the committee started this work, with families facing the cost of fuel, increases in the costs at the supermarket till, the risk of a recession and the impact of fuel poverty, which will, this year, hit more households than we have previously seen.

I would like to focus on the response of the Minister to the committee's recommendations. Our report is clear in the conclusions we have reached, based on the wealth of evidence that we considered, and there is a sense of purpose in what we recommended. And as we published our report in May, four months ago, I am hoping that the Minister has now made significant progress in advancing our recommended actions, with changes in the weather heading towards us. 

I would like assurance on the delivery of our recommendations, and in particular on these following areas: firstly, we called for a review of the support offered to low-income households via the winter fuel support scheme before autumn 2022, assessing take-up rates by local authority area, assessing the effectiveness of the promotion and awareness raising, and considering whether further outreach work to proactively support harder to reach and vulnerable groups is needed. The Minister’s response said a review was happening. Has this now been concluded and, if not, when? Can the Minister assure me that the review is as comprehensive as the committee has called for, to fully understand the effectiveness of support to low-income households and to think through the enormity of the challenges that many more households are now facing? 

Secondly, I am concerned that the Minister’s acceptance of some of our recommendations is not reflected in the accompanying narrative. For example, in our fifth recommendation, where we call for smarter, less restrictive eligibility criteria to ensure, as a minimum, that any household that meets the definition of fuel poverty is able to access support when needed in the next iteration of the Warm Homes programme, the Welsh Government says it

'will consider the Committee’s recommendation when designing the detail of the eligibility criteria to ensure the points raised are addressed.'

My reading of this does not commit the Government to doing exactly as the committee recommended, despite accepting the recommendation. Can the Minister confirm this afternoon that the new programme will be smarter and less restrictive?

These are key considerations, and I am sure that Members will want to know that lessons are being learnt, which I would urge the Government to publish as soon as possible. The challenge of a programme that is smarter in who it targets was also raised by Audit Wales in their report, stating that the Government should set out how it intends to ensure that the next iteration of the Warm Homes programme is bigger in scale, smarter in who it targets and greener in its interventions. I agree with the auditor general.

On this recommendation, 6, I’m afraid the narrative again doesn’t match the acceptance of the recommendation. We are again told just to wait for the Minister to set out the scope and purpose of this new programme. Does the Minister accept the view of Audit Wales that the new programme should be bigger in scale, smarter and greener? If so, will that be made clear this afternoon, to give confidence to Members that significant progress is being made, along with the details we should now expect to see?

Thirdly and finally, I want to touch on another area in our report that is of critical importance.