Speeches by Billington.

“Would this be the responsibility of the Warm Homes Agency?”

“I am interested in the EPC metrics. I have been banging on about EPC reform for a long time. What is the best way of designing those to drive down real bill reduction—both bill reduction and carbon savings? We know one of the problems at the moment is you put a heat pump in and it does not improve your EPC rating.”

“Okay, I think that is politely put, Dr Boardman. What might be an effective way of changing this from exemptions to incentives, even if you maintain the cap?”

“Okay. I have one further question before I relinquish my right to speak for a bit—just for a bit.”

“That sounds like it is additional to EPCs, which concerns me. This is like what we have already talked about, when you said that there were eight different certificates and 32—I was just like when I am renting a place, at the moment I go, “Oh, great, it is an EPC-C”.”

“Right, okay. It would be helpful, I think, from your evidence if we were to be able to summarise it as: the minimum energy efficiency standards need to be able to make sure that we have not just got guidelines but also resources for local authorities to be able to enforce them. A £10,000 cost cap might be fine, but you…”

“Yes, I was interested in that because I am concerned that we have a set of energy efficiency standards that are not enforced, a cap which basically gives people a get-out and no incentive to do the right thing, which feels like the wrong set of rules.”

“So we used to give landlords an allowance without them having a set of standards to apply. We have now introduced a set of standards for them to apply without giving them any money to be able to do it and then we have capped it—”

“Apologies for being a bit late. I would like to ask about the minimum energy efficiency standards. As we know, they have been around but were effectively unenforced by local authorities because they did not have the resources to do so. I am particularly interested in them in relation to the private rented sector in pla…”

“How long ago was this?”

“I am also thinking about the people you stand up for, Dion—the enforcement teams are important but also, if you are buying or renting a home, particularly when you are going to start to worry about those things as you get older because of your need to keep warm and comfy, and the complexity of all this new kit, which, …”

“So far we have rightly focused on defending and protecting British citizens in the region. Can the Prime Minister confirm, though, that he believes that the future of the Iranian Government is a matter for the Iranian people and no one else? Can we focus our diplomatic efforts as soon as possible on de-escalation and p…”

“I think it is worth reminding my right hon. Friend that one of the things that people keep going back to is that a decision was made that this appointment was “worth the risk”, and we finally found out that some people decided that the rules did not apply to them. Considering how important tackling violence against wom…”

“Let me first take a moment for us to remember those women and girls who were silenced, marginalised, degraded, objectified and discarded—collateral damage in the pursuit of pleasure for a network of men who thought that the rules did not apply to them. The correspondence between these men from across the political spec…”

“Just for further clarity, people are concerned that there will be a decision made by the Government, in the form of the Cabinet Secretary, about what is referred to the ISC. We are keen to know that the bulk of the documents will be in the hands of the ISC, which can make the decision about what needs to be kept privat…”

“I will continue to explain in my remarks why I think this is a moment where we need to draw a line under that passive and active consent that we have seen for far too long across all political spectrums and across the decades, where people have turned a blind eye to bad behaviour. We need to know, and to apply our judg…”

“I accept that there are wider constitutional implications for what we are talking about right now, and I will turn to some of those later. We also know, however, that there is a long track record across politics, not just across the political spectrum but across decades, where people’s talent—predominantly men’s talent…”

“As the Prime Minister has pointed out, today is World Cancer Day. As outlined in our cancer plan, early detection and diagnosis is vital. Will the Prime Minister agree to consider the campaign by my constituent Gemma Reeves, who is a nurse at the Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother hospital, to ensure that breast cancer s…”

“May I congratulate my right hon. Friend on this warm homes plan? It has been a long time coming—perhaps a little longer than Conservative Members are prepared to admit, given that he and I worked on something very similar before the Tories abandoned the warm homes ambitions that we now see fulfilled. Under the current …”

“I congratulate my right hon. Friend on structuring the auction to drive down the strike price and reduce consumer energy bills. It is worth reiterating that this means renewable energy will be 40% cheaper than gas. Importantly, though, this is also about creating jobs, specifically in coastal industries. Could he elabo…”