Speeches by Esterson.

“My hon. Friend is right. The warm homes plan will help those who are in fuel poverty the most. We are talking about up to £500 for a combination of insulation and solar and battery installation. Closing the gap between electricity and gas prices, which is what the money off bills will partly do, will make it more attra…”

“I am grateful to the right hon. Member for quoting me, but when backing Liz Truss to be leader of the Tory party he said: “I have no doubt that we will move with determination to make this country safer and more secure.” Does that not rather undermine any claim of credibility he makes?”

“My right hon. Friend rightly reminded us of the progress that was made at COP. The recommitment to limiting global warming to no more than 1.5° is hugely important. He was honest in saying that we did not get everything we wanted, and that is sensible. However, he also reminded us of the absolute seriousness of climate…”

“Rowan View mental health hospital at Maghull health park in my constituency is benefiting from lower costs from the installation of solar panels from GB Energy. May I encourage the Minister to support Maghull health park’s bid for an innovation and research facility so that we can address the Government’s priority of g…”

“The Energy Security and Net Zero Committee has heard evidence that we need these critical minerals for our energy future. That is absolutely true, so the 10% from production and the 20% from recycling are key steps along that road. Can I ask the Minister about no more than 60% coming from one country? He talked about s…”

“Sure, but to the question I asked in the first panel, was that good value for money, given that wall insulation is expensive?”

“Was it from outside the Department?”

“I want to ask some questions about the lessons that have hopefully been learned by now. Mr Pocklington, you talked about the 2021 fuel poverty strategy and said that a policy decision was taken to move to a whole-house approach. Who advised that change?”

“But they would have had a lower cost to run with loft insulation.”

“That is not answering quite the same question, is it?”

“Are you satisfied that the scheme offered value for money in taking that whole-house approach?”

“My understanding is that wall insulation is expensive compared with loft insulation. Would it not have been better value for money to keep it simpler?”

“Mr Gantley, you were nodding as I spoke.”

“So why was there so much external and internal wall insulation?”

“I would have thought that was blindingly obvious. I cannot believe that that was not already in place. Anyway, that is for the Committee’s report. One final question from me at this point: heat rises, so why was external and internal wall insulation such a priority? Should it not just have been loft insulation?”

“Mr Gantley, was it not obvious that there was going to be a problem here?”

“Coming to the challenge around ECO4 being a multi-measure scheme, was it not obvious that the same installers were unlikely to have the necessary competence to install the whole range of measures?”

“To clarify, your contention is that your lack of resourcing meant that you could not pick a problem of that level up, or your scheme providers could not?”

“How could they be certified if their competence was questionable?”

“And yet they are all certified, because they had to be certified to take part in the scheme?”