Speeches by Collinge.

“I want to move on to testing after installation to make sure that households are getting the performance they want. Joanne, you were talking about random testing and two-strike rules. Could you expand on that? If there are any other suggestions from the panel, that would be helpful.”

“We know that there have been huge problems, particularly with insulation installation. The current picture has not worked under certain schemes. Do you think that it is about enforcement or consumer knowledge about the current TrustMark scheme, or do you think something additional is needed?”

“There are some parts of the workforce that do not have accreditation licensing; for example, quite a lot of the building trade. That is correct, isn’t it? There are elements, particularly on the fabric side, where there is essentially no centralised quality control?”

“I will do my best. The things I want to ask about follow on from this conversation. I wanted to talk about the Warm Homes Agency and accreditation. This Committee has recommended that the Government should explore a retrofit workforce accreditation through the Warm Homes Agency, and licensing based on something similar…”

“Is that market certainty currently there? Are firms investing in it?”

“People across Morecambe and Lunesdale are suffering from late Royal Mail deliveries. In fact, one constituent was told by a frustrated, overworked postie that second class letters were being delivered once a week, at most. What steps is the Minister taking to address that problem?”

“Thank you. I want to ask about the manufacturing side rather than the fitting side of some of those newer technologies. There is a target for 70% of heat pumps to be domestically manufactured by 2035. It has been described by Regen as an ambitious target. How realistic is it?”

“Because there will be no monitoring of gas-using appliances, it might deteriorate?”

“Will you be modelling at what point tariffs flip over into being better or worse for a consumer, so levels of energy consumption at which it makes sense to have a low standing charge tariff, and levels above which it does not make sense? Will there be any modelling and illustration for customers?”

“Finally, we previously made recommendations on exemptions to the gas standing charge and on a special summer regime for those on prepayment meters. Will you be implementing them?”

“I want to talk about standing charge reform, and specifically low standing charge tariffs, which I understand to mean you pay a low or zero daily charge, but your kilowatt-hour price is higher, so each unit of energy costs more. When will suppliers be offering low standing charge tariffs?”

“On the first part of that—this is slightly separate from the safety issue—is there not a way of doing virtual disconnection? Why do they have to be physically disconnected from the gas system if you can see that they are not using any gas?”

“What is that safety issue? Because there is gas coming into a house and being used or not being used all the time anyway. What is different about it never being used?”

“Thank you. Obviously a different tariff needs to be an informed choice by consumers. There are risks and benefits. What will you do to ensure that consumers are fully informed and can make good decisions on what tariff to choose?”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Dr Huq. I thank the hon. Member for Mid Bedfordshire (Blake Stephenson) for securing this important debate. I represent a semi-urban, semi-coastal, semi-rural constituency, and I know that delivering healthcare across a wide and dispersed population brings very real and p…”

“We know that the volatility of oil and gas prices has driven the high cost of living over the last decade. We also know that renewables cut the wholesale costs of electricity because they reduce the amount of time for which electricity prices are driven by gas. Does the Chancellor agree that, given the inevitable impac…”

“I believe that Alexis Jay told the Home Affairs Committee that this mandatory reporting was one of the most important recommendations. Does my hon. Friend agree that it is really important that we deliver on the recommendation in full, and do not allow any leeway when there is reasonable evidence that abuse may be occu…”

“Low-traffic neighbourhood?”

“As it came up, Chair, and as we have some expertise here, I want to ask about the semi-urban population density criteria. As it applies to Heysham currently, we have two operating nuclear power stations but we cannot build SMRs there because of that. That has been recommended for review in Fingleton. I am trying to joi…”

“We have our two operating nuclear power stations already there, safely operating for decades. We have nuclear submarines that I presume come quite close to large population centres.”