Greg Barker MP: How this Government is cutting energy bills

Greg Barker MP is Minister of State for Energy & Climate Change.  Follow Greg on Twitter.

Yesterday, the Prime Minister moved another step closer to delivering his promise of real help for hardworking people on their energy bills. Following a consultation, the Government has decided to strengthen the Energy Bill further to deliver the Prime Minister's pledge.

People cannot go without gas and electricity ,and the cost of keeping warm puts a strain on many people. In Labour's last five years, the number of people in fuel poverty rose by 2.25 million. That is why last winter we gave two million low income and vulnerable households, including a million of the poorest pensioners, £130 off their energy bills through the Warm Homes Discount. We also helped over 12 million pensioners with winter fuel payments, and made cold weather payments open to over four million people. A modest fall in the number of households living in fuel poverty was confirmed on Wednesday, and while there is still far more to do the Coalition is making progress where Labour failed.

Yet everyone understands the need to go further. For hardworking people more needs to be done to make sure that, once their bills are paid, there's something left for them to spend on the things they want to.

Greg Barker MP: Marine energy can play a big role in meeting Britain's energy needs and driving export growth

Greg Barker MP is Minister of State for Energy & Climate Change.  Follow Greg on Twitter.

Photograph of Greg Barker over looking the Pentland Firth, launching the second UK Marine Energy Park

This week, in the fast flowing waters between the tip of Caithness and the Orkney Islands, the Conservatives delivered another manifesto pledge. The second of our hugely ambitious marine energy parks was launched, coming hard on the heals of the first, the South West Marine Energy Park, which is already galvanising industrial progress from Bristol to Lands End.

But why does this government attach so much importance to harnessing the power of the waves and tides around our coastline? Well, for starters, it may be a nascent industry but the UK is actually the undisputed world leader in this exciting renewable field. Furthermore, if we are going to ensure that we have plentiful supplies of clean, secure and affordable energy well into the next century, we need a rich diversity of supply.

The idea of harnessing the power of the sea is not a new one but despite some well-intentioned policy, progress stalled to a snails pace in the years under Labour. Their massive over reliance on onshore wind to meet UK renewable energy targets put all other technologies in the shade. As a result, marine power still has some way to go before it can be rolled out cost effectively at commercial scale. 

Greg Barker MP: Blue Green, not Red Green

Greg Barker MP is Climate Change Minister.

It is five years since David Cameron famously journeyed to the Arctic with WWF to  highlight the threat of global warming. The dangers of Climate Change may be even more pressing now than they were back in 2006 but the political world and the global economy have changed too. As the economy went from boom to bust in Labour's Age of Irresponsibility, and another Conservative generation is left to clear up a wrecked economy after Labour mismanagement, gone are the easy assumptions of the boom years. A far more rigorous approach to weighing up the costs as well as benefits of climate policy is demanded, by public and politicians alike.

We need to make sure that our policy ambitions as a Conservative led Government chime with the instincts and day to day reality for families in this period of austerity. We must demonstrate the fundamental truth that Green economics is as much about encouraging basic household virtues of efficiency, saving, and cutting waste as it is about top down political gestures. For too long green politics has been dominated by the centre left pursuing often worthy goals through punitive legislation. We need to recognise that real progress more often comes from harnessing the  enlightened economic self interest of people striving each day to get on and build a better tomorrow for themselves and their families.

The commitment to new carbon budgets with stretching targets to reduce UK carbon emissions by 50% by 2025, must dispel any doubts over the Coalition’s absolute determination to be the “Greenest Government ever”. But talking big while setting targets for future governments to deliver was Labour’s way. The Coalition’s green credentials will be judged on what we can deliver in this Parliament, through effective  policies to help families and communities to take more control of our own energy use and costs, save money and improve our homes and quality of life.

Greg Barker MP: The Coalition's Green Deal will lift Britain off the bottom of Europe's energy efficiency table

Greg Barker is MP for Bexhill and Battle and Minister of State for Climate Change.

Today the Coalition has outlined plans to unleash the biggest home improvement programme since the Second World War. The new Energy Bill  may be a huge step towards fulfilling our ambition to be “The Greenest Government ever,” but it is certainly no tree huggers charter or a narrow response to climate science!

“The Green Deal” the centre piece of this flagship Bill will go even further than the Conservative manifesto. In the general election, we promised that every household would be entitled to upto £6,500 to spend on energy efficiency improvements, available to everyone, without any upfront payment, to fund modern energy saving measures around the home.

Today we are raising the limit to £10,000 for measures that can be paid for against future savings and more could be available from the big energy companies to further help with older, hard to treat homes and also to assist the fuel poor.

As a result of the new market frame work we are introducing, the private sector will be unleashed on an ambitious scale that will finally match resources to the size of the challenge of retrofitting Britain’s inefficient and old housing stock, which after 13 years of Labour, languishes at the bottom of the European energy efficiency table.