Campaigners welcome Don Foster MP’s Support for Energy Efficiency Targets

Don Foster MP supports new law to outlaw cold homes and tackle greenhouse gas emissions

A broad coalition of organisations have today welcomed Bath MP Don Foster’s backing for a new Parliamentary campaign calling for binding targets to be set for improving energy efficiency in homes. Don Foster MP has signed a Parliamentary Motion which recognises that conserving energy is vital to ending the scandal of cold homes and to tackling climate change.

The Motion also pays tribute to the key role a new law will play in achieving these aims. The Home Energy Conservation Bill 2002 is being piloted through Parliament by Des Turner MP, and Don Foster is a co-sponsor of this Bill. It will reach its final stage in the Commons on 10 May. This Bill requires targets to be set for achieving 30% energy efficiency improvements by 2010 in every local authority area in England and Wales.

The new Parliamentary campaign points to three influential reports which have recently highlighted the crucial part that energy efficiency has to play in reducing both our fuel consumption and the emission of harmful gases into the atmosphere. The reports - by the Prime Minister’s own “think-tank” (the Performance & Innovation Unit), the Energy Saving Trust and a Commons Select Committee - all recommend almost identical targets to those contained in the Home Energy Conservation Bill.

Don Foster MP said:

“As co-sponsor of this Bill, I’m particularly pleased to see a victory in sight on this issue.

“It’s a national scandal that, at the beginning of the 21st Century, roughly 6 million people are living in homes that aren’t properly heated.

“Research has shown that Britain’s aging housing stock is less thermally efficient than anywhere else in Europe - so we really do need to achieve this target of a 30% energy efficiency improvement throughout the UK.

“For the past four years, I’ve been lobbying the Government on fuel poverty issues, and promoting Home Energy grants among people in the Bath area. I’m very encouraged that the Government has indicated it will continue to support this Bill on 10 May.”

ENDS.

For more information, please contact:
Marianne Rustad at Don Foster MP’s constituency office: 01225 338 973 or rustadm@parliament.uk

HECA - Partnership for 30%
A partnership between environmentalists, social campaigners and public bodies and officers to ensure the achievement of the target of
30% improvement in energy efficiency by 2010 set by the Home Energy Conservation Act 1995
Chair: Andrew Warren Partnership Organiser: Ron Bailey

This article published: 18/09/2023

Published by Bath Liberal Democrats, 31 James St West, Bath, BA1 2BT. Printed and hosted by JPC Infonet, 2 St Georges Works, Trowbridge, Wiltshire, BA14 8AA. Your Privacy.