3. Statement by the Minister for Climate Change: Improving the Energy Efficiency of Welsh Homes

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 2:47 pm on 8 November 2022.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Julie James Julie James Labour 2:47, 8 November 2022

Thank you, Janet. I'm not entirely certain where the questions were in that. But, just to say a couple of things, you should be very careful about statistics; they're very deceptive. You chose to look at the percentage of houses at EPC C, but, of course, we've already brought all social homes in Wales up to EPC D as part of the Welsh housing quality standard. And if you actually ever listened to anything that's said in Plenary, you'd know that we're about to launch the next Welsh housing quality standard, which I've referenced numerous times already. It seems to have passed you by. 

The British Government, since you brought this up, hasn't, of course, brought any of its social homes up to EPC D. It hasn't even attempted the task. The statistics you quote are heavily skewed in favour of the south-east. So, it's always important to, as I was once told by a law professor, read all the way to the end of the page. So, I would highly recommend you do that in looking at those statistics. 

In view of the other comments you made, there are three things to say. I referenced the UK Government schemes because they're the ones that have been failing and that we've had to step into the breach to save people from. It's cost us a lot of money to do that. It was morally the right thing to do. The UK Government should have done it, quite clearly. 

The fuel poverty thing, let's be absolutely clear, is entirely driven by the way that the energy market is pegged to the marginal price of gas. If the UK Government wanted to fix that, it could. It has a Bill going through the Houses of Parliament right now that does not fix it. It could fix it and it has chosen not to.

It's quite clearly nonsensical to charge renewable energy in the same way as you charge fossil fuel supply. On renewable energy, clearly, the cost of that is in the capital expenditure to build it. The supply is free—the wind is free, the sun is free. The Chancellor has not yet figured out a way to tax it. But, that's not the case with fossil fuels. You have upfront capital investment to build the plants that drive it, but also the supply costs money, and that's what's driving the problems in the energy market. So, the two solutions are really straightforward. First of all, properly fund renewables. I'll just remind you once again that we would have a tidal lagoon in Swansea if the Conservative Government had listened to its own Conservative adviser about building it, and then we would have a really serious supply of renewable energy already. Absolutely, the Conservative ex-Government Minister who recommended it said that it was a no-brainer and he was absolutely right. So, lots of things have been missed here. But, the bottom line is, unless we move, shift away from fossil fuels onto renewables, and we change the energy market to match that, then we will be facing this problem, well, until there's next a Labour Government. Diolch.