January 2013: The transcript of discussions at the last Mayoral Question time has just become available and includes a number of interesting comments by the Mayor on both fuel poverty and his domestic energy efficiency programme, RE:NEW:
4046/2012 – Fuel Poverty Murad Qureshi: Is fuel poverty getting worse in London?
Boris Johnson (Mayor of London): The blunt answer is yes; in my view fuel poverty in London is getting worse. There is a problem in London because the price of fuel is increasing at a faster rate than household income. We have an increasing problem and that is why the Know Your Rights campaign is so important, the retro fitting is so important to reduce people’s fuel costs. I also think that, as a city, we need to campaign against the fuel companies who are ripping off the consumer, and I have made representations, as you would expect, on that. I think we need to start thinking about security of supply in London, and indeed in the country generally.
Murad Qureshi (AM): Thank you, Mayor, for the response. I am not going to cover ground that we have covered already because I have asked you similar questions over the last two months. It has been a national issue this week. We have had two studies out suggesting that we will have 300,000 more households in fuel poverty nationally. We already have 500,000 households in London in fuel poverty. Yes, have had got a very raw deal out of our energy companies and in particular EDF Energy. Whilst the rest of the country may be hit by 7%, we are disproportionately being hit by 11% whilst there are only increasing energy prices by 2% in France. I would like to ask what lobbying you have done about London targets for future programmes? Given that Londoners have had such a raw deal from the energy companies and in particular the lack of delivery of energy efficiency programmes, have you, and are you, prepared to lobby Government to include regional requirements on that front?
Boris Johnson (Mayor of London): Yes, thank you. We are working constantly with the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) to ensure that London gets its fair share of all green and Energy Company Obligation (ECO) funding. We want to have a memorandum of understanding with each of the top six energy suppliers to ensure that London receives its fair share, as a region, of ECO funding and we are working on this now. You are right to say that domestic retrofit has been slow and you have been very good at chasing this up month in, month out. We can do more and we will do more.
Murad Qureshi (AM): Can I ask that you join me in writing to Ed Davey [Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change] about these concerns? He has got the primary legislation to do this and I am very surprised he does not seem to see the need for it.
Boris Johnson (Mayor of London): No. Murad, I am very happy to work with you on this. I also think – I do not know whether you agree – that since we have, it seems, an abundant source of relatively low carbon energy in the form of natural gas, turning up in shale gas, turning up in parts of this country, I think we should get on and get fracking. I wonder whether we can add that to the letter to Ed Davey?
Murad Qureshi (AM): I will leave that issue aside.
Boris Johnson (Mayor of London): Are you going to join me in urging Ed to get fracking?
Murad Qureshi (AM): I am not convinced.
Onkar Sahota (AM): Cold homes cost the NHS £1.36 billion a year through the cost to hospitals and general practitioners. Last year there was a 12% increase in deaths in the winter months over the year previously. You already recognised that Londoners need help to protect them against the greed of the energy companies, they need to have their houses retrofitted, they need to conserve their energy so they can use their money more effectively, and yet you are ending your Re:New programme. Would you please reconsider that? Is this a good time to stop this programme?
Boris Johnson (Mayor of London): I do not know what you mean, we are not stopping it.
Onkar Sahota (AM): I understood you were bringing the Re:New programme to an end this year.
Boris Johnson (Mayor of London): No, we want to go on and retrofit as many homes as we can. We have done 67,000 and we are going to continue to do it. ECO covers 100% of the retrofit costs. We want to ensure London gets its fair share of the ECO funding so that we can expand retrofitting.
Onkar Sahota (AM): So the Re:New programme is not coming to an end?
Boris Johnson (Mayor of London): Certainly the programme of retrofitting is absolutely not coming to an end.
Onkar Sahota (AM): How about the Re:New programme?
Boris Johnson (Mayor of London): It was called BEEP [Building Energy Efficiency Programme], then HEEP [Home Energy Efficiency Programme], it has gone through several names already, the Re:New programme. It may be changing its name but certainly the programme of retrofitting goes on.
Onkar Sahota (AM): Is your office putting money into this programme of retrofitting houses in London?Boris Johnson (Mayor of London): We are continuing with a very significant retrofitting programme. I am very happy to share the details with you at a later date but I cannot —
Onkar Sahota (AM): I know the energy companies are doing something but this was a programme run through the Mayor’s Office. Are you continuing to put money into retrofitting houses for Londoners?
Boris Johnson (Mayor of London): As you know, Onkar, we are not a funding body for schemes across London. I would be more than happy to give you the details of how the scheme is going to be funded —
Onkar Sahota (AM): The key issue, Mr Mayor, is that you were putting money into it and you stopped putting money into it now. Are you saying you want to carry on helping people as you have done so previously?
Boris Johnson (Mayor of London): I do not know quite what you are talking about but we continue with our ambitions to expand our retrofitting programme which has so far covered 67,000 homes to help Londoners out of fuel poverty. I am more than happy to share with you the details of how that is to be funded, but it is vital that we get our share of funding from Government. The Carbon Emission Reduction Target (CERT) programme comes to an end this year. It is being replaced by ECO and the Green Deal and we need to ensure that London gets its fair share.
Onkar Sahota (AM): I will leave it at that at this point, Mr Mayor.