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

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:08 pm on 8 November 2022.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Julie James Julie James Labour 3:08, 8 November 2022

Just on that last one: it's a great scheme, isn't it? So, the kind of collective action that you get when you're able to implement the sorts of collective energy efficiency schemes that you get in that instance is an example, and we're hoping to roll that model out. So, for Members who aren't familiar with it, we've got a new estate and an old estate coming together with an energy efficiency scheme that allows those with the ability to put good solar panels on their homes to share their energy out across the scheme, to provide EV charging points, and all the rest of it; it allows Economy 7 to work for white goods across the scheme. There's a whole series of things that you can do with the collective power of coming together, basically. So, it's a great scheme. I've managed to visit it a couple of times, and we will be looking to roll that out with the companies that have been involved in that—with the social landlord company and the energy companies that have been working with us. So, that's a really excellent example of what can be achieved.

Just in terms of the Help to Buy, it's a bit more complicated than that. We use Help to Buy to drive other improvements in the building industry. So, actually, builders who don't build to particular standards don't get Help to Buy, and that's been very helpful in driving some of those standards. We also use financial transactions capital, which, Mike, I know you're familiar with, but it is an arcane art, so it's not quite as easy to swap that out into individual householder loans. We are though looking, with the Development Bank of Wales, at rolling out grant and loan schemes to owner-occupiers in exactly the circumstances that you're talking about and, actually, being able to target people who get the single-occupier discount, who are often older people who've lost a partner and are in that exact position. So, we have a way to identify people, so that we can consult on it. So, we are looking to do exactly that.