Miatta Fahnbulleh MP: speeches

Speeches

• 26 Jun 2025 · Floating Solar Panels · Hansard source

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  I am always in the market for less pain. Let me say a little bit about some of the constraints. Eligible bids have been submitted to our contracts for difference schemes, but unfortunately none has yet been successful. That is because the cost of floating solar is about 10% to 15% higher than those of ground-mounted projects, and the reason for that is the cost of the floating structures on which the panel sits. And we hear from the sector that these can account for nearly half of the cost of the project. Moreover, floating solar requires expensive underwater cables, which costs more than land-based systems. Therefore, although we are very keen to encourage this technology and to encourage the sector to grow, there is more that needs to be done in order to make them cost effective. From a Government perspective, it is critical that every scheme and every project that we support is cost-effective, so that, in the end, taxpayers are not footing the bill for technology that is too expensive.

• 19 Jun 2025 · Warm Home Discount · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is absolutely right. We are engaging with the Scottish Government. Today’s expansion creates more resources for the Scottish Government to ensure that direct bill support is provided to more households. Alongside that, there has to be a plan to upgrade homes and to make sure that we are delivering homes that are warmer and cheaper to run. We will have a plan here, and we expect that, with the additional funding and the example that we have set, the Scottish Government will follow suit, but we are long past the stage of warm words and light action. We need to get on with it, because there are people across the country, including in Scotland, who are struggling. It is the responsibility of Government to get a grip and start to act.

• 19 Jun 2025 · Warm Home Discount · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is completely right—a promise made, a promise delivered. That is what a Labour Government do. We are very clear about the change we need to deliver in the country. Unlike the Conservatives and the Scottish Government, there are no warm words or faffing around; we are getting on with the job of delivering change.

• 19 Jun 2025 · Warm Home Discount · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for the work he has been doing to champion this agenda. I can confirm that we will be writing to all households in receipt of means-tested benefits to let them know that they are eligible for the discount. For the vast majority, it will be automatic; they will not have to do anything, and the discount will turn up as a credit on their bills. There is a bit of action to take for people who are not the bill payer. We will get the message out that they must ensure that they are included as the bill payer in order to get the automatic support.

• 19 Jun 2025 · Warm Home Discount · Hansard source

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  Northern Ireland runs its own separate scheme. We are in very close contact with the Northern Irish Government—in fact, I was in Northern Ireland yesterday. We are making sure that our work to deliver clean power, which is our route to lowering bills, and, critically, our work through the warm homes plan is co-ordinated. The hon. Member is right that there are people across the country who are struggling at the moment, and it is absolutely our responsibility to take action to support them.

• 10 Jun 2025 · Warm Home Discount: Extension · Hansard source

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  We are working across all nations to ensure that households get the support that they need. I will be in Northern Ireland next week, where I will talk to the devolved Administration about how we can work together to ensure that homes across the country are supported.

• 10 Jun 2025 · Warm Home Discount: Extension · Hansard source

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  We know there are parts of the country where homes are not up to standard and families are struggling with bills. That is why our warm homes plan is so important. We will target homes across the country and ensure that we provide a range of measures, from insulation through to solar and heat pumps, so we can ensure that homes are warmer and cheaper to run.

• 10 Jun 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  Yes.

• 29 Apr 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  We are aware of issues that we have had with ECO4 and the Great British insulation scheme. If constituents have been affected, they should have received a letter from Ofgem. They should be able to contact their installer, who is obliged to fix the work, and there is a clear redress mechanism. There is a wider point: we know that the system for quality assurance and consumer redress is not fit for purpose and we are determined to overhaul it.

• 25 Feb 2025 · Warm Home Discount · Hansard source

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  One hundred per cent. We need a long-term plan, so that every part of the system can respond to that. Our warm homes plan will try to set a long-term trajectory, so that we can marshal every part of the system necessary to deliver hundreds of thousands of upgrades, year in, year out.

• 25 Feb 2025 · Warm Home Discount · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is completely right. Citizens Advice teams, and the network of third-party organisations and charities that they work with, are providing some of the most vital support to our constituents at a really difficult time. Citizens Advice is a key partner. We work with it and engage with it. I am going across the country meeting its teams, because we absolutely need their help to target support at the most vulnerable.

• 25 Feb 2025 · Warm Home Discount · Hansard source

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  We are reaching out to and working with the Northern Ireland Executive. I would be happy to meet on this issue.

• 25 Feb 2025 · Warm Home Discount · Hansard source

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  I agree that we need long-term solutions. That is why we have talked constantly about the clean power mission, and why we are clear that while we make the transition to clean power, we will support the most vulnerable households. As an important first step, we are extending support next winter to over 6 million people who we know are struggling. We will continue to build on that in the weeks and months ahead.

• 12 Feb 2025 · Fuel Poverty: England · Hansard source

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  The hon. Member raises winter fuel payments, as hon. Members across the House have done. The Chancellor had an impossible job to do and made a tough call, but we have been clear that we will do whatever is needed to support the most vulnerable. Everything I am charged with doing, everything that my Department is trying to do, is to ensure that households struggling with bills can be protected and insulated. The Government reviewed the fuel poverty strategy, “Sustainable warmth: protecting vulnerable households”, because we recognised that the trajectory we were on was not the right one. The review showed that progress on meeting the statutory target has stalled. Alongside that review, we are consulting on how to up our strategy to respond to that problem.

• 4 Feb 2025 · Fuel Poverty · Hansard source

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  Fuel poverty is devolved in Scotland. The Scottish Government have had the opportunity to make a dent in this problem for almost 20 years and they have not. Even now, as we are ramping up upgrades to help people with fuel poverty, the Scottish Government are raiding more than £200 million from retrofitting funds that could help families today. I will take no lectures from the hon. Gentleman on how we tackle this problem.

• 4 Feb 2025 · Warm Homes Plan · Hansard source

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  The warm homes plan will upgrade up to 5 million homes with low-carbon solutions such as heat pumps, solar and insulation to deliver homes that are warmer and cheaper to run. We have already kick-started delivery, with up to 300,000 homes being upgraded this year alone. We will set out our plans in the spring on how we will ramp this up.

• 4 Feb 2025 · Warm Homes Plan · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend raises an important point. We are aware of too many cases where home upgrades have not been done to the required standard. We are very clear that the ad hoc, fragmented system of regulating home upgrades that we inherited from the last Government is in dire need of reform. We will overhaul that system so that when people have home upgrades, they can be confident that they will be of the highest standard and that when things go wrong, they will have as much protection as possible and redress within the system.

• 4 Feb 2025 · Home Insulation Schemes · Hansard source

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  What is clear to us as a new Government is that the system of regulating home upgrades was too ad hoc and too fragmented. Accountability was not clear enough and consumers were not at the heart of the system. We are committed to turning around that system. Put simply, when someone has a home upgrade, they need to have the confidence that it will work for them and that, when things go wrong, redress will be put in place. I am committed to update the Select Committee on the progress that we are making on getting a grip of what we have inherited and on making sure that such a thing never happens again for consumers.

• 4 Feb 2025 · Home Insulation Schemes · Hansard source

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  The hon. Gentleman is right: it is just not good enough for any householder to get a home upgrade that is not up to standard. I am sorry to hear about the example of Mrs King. We are working with Members across the House on supporting a number of individual cases. If it is a Government-backed scheme that is at fault, mechanisms are in place for the work to be remediated at low cost. But, at the end of the day, we have acknowledged that the system requires root and branch reform so that when consumers opt for upgrades they can have the confidence of knowing that they will deliver what we are saying: warm homes that are cheaper to run.

• 4 Feb 2025 · Home Insulation Schemes · Hansard source

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  Home insulation delivers warm homes and lower bills. I have visited Government-backed schemes across the country and seen their impact on households and consumers, but we also know that there are too many examples of homes not being upgraded to the required standard. We are not happy or comfortable with that. We are committed to overhauling system so that when people have home upgrades, they can be confident that they will be of the highest standard and that, if things go wrong, they will have redress so that we can take them on this journey with us.

• 4 Feb 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  I am happy to meet the hon. Gentleman. We know that we have a job to do to ensure that all insulation is up to standard and that we have the right measures for every type of household. I am keen to engage with him and Members across the House.

• 23 Jan 2025 · ECO4 and Insulation Schemes · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend, and we are absolutely committed to upgrading people’s homes. We believe that that is the route to delivering warmer homes that are cheaper to run, and that commitment stands for all communities. We want to move at pace with our warm homes plan because we want to deliver upgrades in people’s homes. However, we are very clear that part of that has to be an overhaul of the system, because if consumers want to go on this journey, they need to be confident that the work done will be of the utmost quality and standard, and that if things go wrong, we have proper redress systems in place. That is not what we inherited, but it is absolutely what we must deliver.

• 23 Jan 2025 · ECO4 and Insulation Schemes · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is right to highlight subcontracting within the system. Often we find that subcontracting is happening two or three times, and the starting client is not overseeing the work in the way that they should. That is why we are clear that we must look at the entire system, and part of that is looking at who is delivering the work, how they are delivering it, and how we ensure that there is proper accountability in the system. It is obvious to me that the current system does not allow for that accountability, and that is what puts consumers in a difficult position.

• 23 Jan 2025 · ECO4 and Insulation Schemes · Hansard source

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  We have suspended the 39 companies, and under Government schemes they will not be doing any work on solid wall insulation. The vast majority, particularly those installers that TrustMark believes are risky, are prohibited from doing other work. Where we have evidence that some of the companies are delivering loft insulation, for example, and other measures to standard, they are allowed to do that, but we are keeping this closely under review. TrustMark is looking at the 39 companies constantly, and there is a big onus on the requirement on those companies to deliver and remediate the work in order to be able to any further work.

• 23 Jan 2025 · ECO4 and Insulation Schemes · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Member for all the work he has done on spray foam insulation and the campaigning he has done for his constituents. I fondly remember that Adjournment debate with just the two of us, and I vividly remember the stories he told of Tom and Norma. I reiterate the commitment to work together to try to resolve this. The difference between spray foam insulation and work done under the ECO and GBIS schemes is that, because those are Government-backed schemes, we have the data. Large numbers of people have had spray foam installed, and some but not all of that work was done through the green homes grant. We recognise that there is a problem with the system of quality assurance and regulation across the piece—we have acknowledged that very clearly in the House. We will continue to work with MHCLG and other colleagues to think about what we can do on spray foam. The priority, as the hon. Member will understand, is households who have had work done under ECO and GBIS that, if we do not fix it quickly, could result in damp and mould. We must act quickly on that. However, I acknowledge that there is an issue with households that had spray foam insulation done under the old system. As I said when we had the debate, we will continue work to think about ways in which we can resolve that for those households.