Speeches by Downie.

“We heard in the last session—you just mentioned this again, Jo—about the necessity to target those fuel poor or in fuel poverty. Is there enough consumer knowledge and confidence about heat pump technology that would necessitate that upward drive, so people asking for it as well? Or is that something the Government nee…”

“What else would be needed?”

“Sam and Jo have alluded to the need for market certainty to grow businesses. Is the expanded boiler upgrade scheme funding sufficient to meet increases in demand while keeping costs manageable as well? Joanne, can we start with you?”

“Brenda, do you have anything to add?”

“So all those benefits could be put at risk by announcements from political parties suggesting that perhaps this will not continue?”

“Peter, what would your view be on that, and what impact would it have on people’s likelihood to access loans or other support if they felt that it was not going to be there? What effect would that have on their circumstances down the line when it comes to fuel poverty?”

“Dion, you mentioned the difficulty of older people being confident in taking loans. How important is political consensus to that, that there will be continuation, and what would the impact be of some parties this week suggesting that these grants or conditions could be cut in the future?”

“Specifically on some of the loan conditions, would you say it is important that the loans have things like security against job loss or other elements built in to build that confidence up as well?”

“You have just touched on some of the questions I wanted to ask about loan structures. Specifically, let me ask Peter and probably Brenda the first question: what lessons could we learn from the Green Deal and the Green Homes Grant about how to structure loans properly? How do you start going about building consumer con…”

“What do you mean by expensive? I know it is difficult, but it is important that we have some definition; otherwise, the risk is people will say it is too expensive. They will put a larger cost on it.”

“When Joanne and Sam mentioned the need for more public education, do we need to make sure that we are being open in the beginning about how much this costs? If so, what window or bracket should we be saying? For example, this will cost you X and save you X—certainly the first part, maybe the second part is a bit harder…”

“Finally, as I alluded to in the last session, is there any evidence that scrapping the boiler upgrade scheme could see money saved on energy bills, as we have seen proposed this week?”

“This might be one for Louise, but anyone else can chip in. Do you think the Government are right that up-front costs of heat pumps will fall in the future as this expands? Have they got that right? If not, how do we make sure that the costs come down faster?”

“We heard in the last session—you just mentioned this again, Jo—about the necessity to target those fuel poor or in fuel poverty. Is there enough consumer knowledge and confidence about heat pump technology that would necessitate that upward drive, so people asking for it as well? Or is that something the Government nee…”

“What else would be needed?”

“Sam and Jo have alluded to the need for market certainty to grow businesses. Is the expanded boiler upgrade scheme funding sufficient to meet increases in demand while keeping costs manageable as well? Joanne, can we start with you?”

“Brenda, do you have anything to add?”

“So all those benefits could be put at risk by announcements from political parties suggesting that perhaps this will not continue?”

“Peter, what would your view be on that, and what impact would it have on people’s likelihood to access loans or other support if they felt that it was not going to be there? What effect would that have on their circumstances down the line when it comes to fuel poverty?”

“Dion, you mentioned the difficulty of older people being confident in taking loans. How important is political consensus to that, that there will be continuation, and what would the impact be of some parties this week suggesting that these grants or conditions could be cut in the future?”