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Meeting of the Parliament 23 February 2011

23 Feb 2011 · S3 · Meeting of the Parliament

Item of business

Energy Bill

McArthur, Liam LD Orkney Watch on SPTV

A framework has clearly been set, and the minister has addressed the issue of how Scottish interests will be represented through the continuing stages of the process, so I take reassurance from that.

WWF also states:

“The UK Energy Bill contains several provisions that could dramatically enhance domestic energy efficiency activity in Scotland”,

including the green deal and the ECO.

It seems clear that rather than closing off options for taking action as some have suggested, the bill and the motion do quite the reverse. It is my understanding that by agreeing to the motion today, the Parliament will enhance the suite of options that are available to Scottish ministers to act, as the minister reiterated a number of times in his speech.

At a time when we face high and spiralling fuel prices, the bill is a good thing in terms of its substance and the urgency that it shows on the part of ministers. At a time when budgets are tight and set to remain so for some time, an innovative financing mechanism that will allow domestic consumers and businesses to pay back the cost of energy efficiency improvements through their energy bills, thereby reducing or removing up-front costs, is surely worthy of welcome.

UK ministers have made clear that there will be additional help for lower-income and vulnerable households and hard-to-treat-properties, following on from the refocusing of the carbon emissions reduction target and the smaller and more targeted warm front programme. Again, I assume that Scottish and UK ministers and their officials will need to continue to work closely on the detail of that.

I am pleased that attention is being given to the private rented sector, in which, as I think we would all acknowledge, far more significant improvements in energy efficiency need to be achieved. Again, the detail will need to be thrashed out over the coming months. The suggestion that it may not be possible post-2015 to refuse any tenant who requests a green deal could well go some way towards triggering such an improvement.

Moreover, Chris Huhne confirmed to the Economy, Energy and Tourism Committee that this Parliament’s Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 could be used in relation to the private rented sector

“to prod the green deal into action.”—[Official Report, Economy, Energy and Tourism Committee, 12 January 2011; c 4571.]

That is welcome, and is further proof of the complementary nature of the tools that are now at ministers’ disposal.

I am aware of the concerns that have been raised by environmental groups—and again this afternoon—regarding the repeal of HECA. However, a consultation in 2007 showed that two thirds of respondents agreed that HECA should be repealed because it was no longer useful as a driver to improve energy efficiency. Gavin Brown has reiterated some of the concerns that were expressed to the committee in that regard.

I entirely accept that there is a role for such a driver, and the green deal can go beyond what HECA was able to achieve; Norrie Kerr has offered some balanced and constructive proposals in that regard. Given the track record of some local authorities in that area, there is cause for reasonable optimism about how that might be made to work. It is also—

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Meeting of the Parliament 23 February 2011

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