
North Wales MS and Chair of the Senedd Cross-Party Group on Fuel Poverty and Energy Efficiency, Mark Isherwood, has called on the Welsh Government to improve the energy efficiency of fuel-poor homes in Wales.
Responding to the Statement by the Cabinet Secretary for Housing and Local Government on ‘Warm Homes’, Mr Isherwood said that despite his raising the issue of fuel poverty in the Senedd for over two decades, it remains “a deep, enduring issue across Wales, estimated to impact virtually all our lower income households”.
He said that with energy prices set to stay high throughout the winter, well above pre-crisis levels, many households will struggle to keep warm and well.
Speaking in yesterday’s meeting of the Welsh Parliament, he said:
“There's an urgent need to improve the energy efficiency of fuel-poor homes in Wales, with energy bills that are permanently low. Yet, at the current rate of delivery of the Welsh Government's Warm Homes Nest scheme, just over 1,600 homes per year, it will take well over a century to improve the energy efficiency of the homes of all our lower income households currently estimated to be in fuel poverty.
“The sector continues to call on the Welsh Government to significantly increase the funding of its Warm Homes programme, as they state this is currently insufficient to address the scale of the challenge of fuel poverty in Wales.
“How do you, therefore, respond to the call at last November's joint meeting of the Cross-Party Group on Fuel Poverty and Energy Efficiency and Cross-Party Group on Housing for the Welsh Government to allocate the consequentials from the UK Government's Warm Homes plan into its Warm Homes programme to support this, estimated to result in around £170 million in Wales?”
Mr Isherwood added:
“As the office of the Older People's Commissioner has stated, boiler repairs or replacements in necessary circumstances should be available to all eligible applicants without working heating or hot water where low-carbon heating is not yet viable or appropriate, irrespective of age and health. However, within the first six months of operation of the Welsh Government's current Warm Homes programme, launched 1st April last year, some eligible households were being turned away for measures if their home was not yet viable or appropriate for a heat pump. This was very concerning and in sharp contrast to how National Energy Action and partners understood the scheme was intended to operate, risking leaving eligible low-income households, living in the least efficient homes, with no working heating or hot water. They therefore strongly recommended this issue was resolved as a matter of urgency.”
Mr Isherwood welcomed the fact that in response to feedback from National Energy Action and partners, the Welsh Government has agreed to ensure that all eligible Nest applicants can now receive a boiler repair or replacement if they have no working heating or hot water, meaning that, while heat pumps are still available, eligible households may, for now, still be able to get a replacement boiler or repair as an alternative, alongside other insulation and energy efficiency measures. However, he asked the Cabinet Secretary to respond to Fuel Poverty Coalition Cymru's concern that the Welsh Government is only committed to this necessary provision until the end of March, and to their call for this to remain in place throughout the duration of the programme.
Mr Isherwood also questioned the Cabinet Secretary over the scrapping of Winter Fuel Payments for millions.
He said:
“Following the scrapping of Winter Fuel Payments for millions of pensioners, the UK Labour Government urged pensioners to check if they could be eligible for Pension Credit to secure to secure the Winter Fuel Payment. An estimated 130,000 older people in the UK will miss out because they're just £500 over the income threshold to claim pension credit. How do you therefore respond to the call by the Older People's Commissioner for Wales for action to resolve the issue of the 'cliff edge' whereby older people ineligible for Pension Credit because of incomes just above the threshold miss out on support entirely?
“And to the call from Care & Repair Cymru for the implementation of a safety net grant for disrepair for vulnerable and low-income households, including those who fall just short of pension credit eligibility, to keep them safe, warm, and out of hospital?”
In her response, the Cabinet Secretary said her “Cabinet colleague Jane Hutt has been really doing a lot of work in this space”, but failed to reveal what exactly is being done to help pensioners on the cliff edge who miss out on support.