We are pleased to support this motion and our Amendments are only intended to strengthen it.
Although the number of households in debt has fallen, higher debt levels are now concentrated in fewer households.
In addition to calling on the Welsh Government to implement the new Warm Homes Programme with urgency; our first amendment adds specific reference to older people and people living with a terminal illness.
Care and Repair’s Report “Older People in Wales: Poverty in Winter” found that their average client will be spending on average 19% of their income on utilities this winter, including 15% on gas and electricity, putting these older people in Fuel Poverty.
Further, they highlight the concern that people in North Wales and Merseyside pay an extra £82 in standing charges every year compared to London.
Further, Marie Curie are calling for the Welsh Government to add people with 12 months or less to live to the health conditions eligibility criteria in its Warm Homes Programme.
Our second amendment seeks to strengthen the motion’s call on the Welsh Government to set “interim targets in their Tackling Fuel Poverty 2021-2035 Plan” by calling on the Welsh Government to “introduce interim milestones” to the plan.
As National Action Energy Cymru and the Bevan Foundation note, although interim Fuel Poverty targets based on the Energy Efficiency of Fuel poor homes would provide vital opportunities to review progress towards 2035, the new targets do not yet meet the Welsh Government’s Statutory obligations to specify “interim objectives to be achieved and target dates for achieving them”.
As Citizen’s Advice Cymru states, Interim targets would ensure that the “Welsh Government is accountable for progress”.
Our amendment 3 “regrets that the Welsh Government has not implemented the new Warm Homes programme prior to the winter of 2023 despite assurances that it would” .
According to Welsh Government, the Warm Homes programme is its primary mechanism to tackle fuel poverty.
The new scheme will be demand led and assist those who are least able to pay.
Despite assurances, the Welsh Government did not implement the programme prior to the winter of 2023.
In fact, although the Welsh Government Fuel Poverty Strategy stated that they would “consult on revised arrangements for delivering measures for tackling fuel poverty beyond March 2023” between June and December 2021, the Consultation was not launched until December 2021.
The strategy also states that the Welsh Government would publish its response and implement their findings to start in April 2023 – but they did not respond until June 2023.
I have been repeatedly told by various Minister’s in this Chamber that the New Warm Programme would be implemented before this Winter – but the First Minister finally admitted last week that they were now looking to the end of the Financial year, which is next April 5th, after winter is over.
Our final amendment notes the ongoing work by Ofgem and the UK Government to support households facing cost-of-living challenges and to deliver consumer protection.
Analysis by the IMF shows that the gross size of the UK Government’s energy support package relative to GDP is one of the highest in Europe.
The Chancellor’s Autumn Statement last month noted that the UK Government’s Energy Price Guarantee and Energy Bills Support Scheme paid for almost half of the typical family’s energy bill from October 2022 to June 2023, in addition to the benefits uprating and support for vulnerable households, which included new Cost of Living Payments in 2023-24 and a £1 billion extension of the Household Support Fund.
Ofgem’s price cap sets a limit on what suppliers can charge households per unit of energy.
As Ofgem told us at last week’s meeting of the Cross Party Group on Fuel Poverty and Energy Efficiency, the price cap increase from 1st January 2024 is because of the increase in international cost of energy caused by world events.
Although the launch of their Code of Practice on involuntary prepayment meter installations is welcomed, last week’s Petition’s Committee report “A Warmer Winter” is right to call for Ofgem to monitor the impact of the Code, with particular focus on those at the upper and lower age limits.
Finally, those Silly Billies who repeatedly blame the cost of living crisis on Westminster should note that the IMF’s 2023 Annual Report includes “a combination of climate shocks and the pandemic disrupted food and energy production and distribution, driving up costs for people around the world. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine worsened an already difficult situation” – and that, as Action Aid stated last month, “the global economic crisis is affecting us all this winter”.
