My Lords, I thank my noble friend for his warm and supportive welcome for the order. He asked a question on switching to which I will refer in a moment. I also thank the noble Baroness, Lady Worthington, for her comments and her general support of the order. She has raised a number of questions. I will try to answer as many of them as I can. Those that I fail to answer I will get into writing and see that the noble Baroness and my noble friend are copied into those responses.
Coming back to the noble Baroness’s opening comments about the take-up of the Green Deal, we tend to assume that everything has to be done through a particular type of finance scheme. We have found that the Green Deal finance is only one payment option for getting Green Deal measures in place. We have found that self-finance—people going out, taking on measures and paying for them themselves—has been a much more popular way of getting these measures in place. The noble Baroness mentioned the numbers. We know that 500,000 measures have already been put into around 400,000 homes, whether through ECO, self-finance or Green Deal finance. To reduce the issue to being seen only through the success of Green Deal finance distorts the real picture of the Green Deal, which is that it is a long-term programme to ensure that we get real energy-efficiency measures put into homes. Those measures may be financed in a variety of ways.
I say to the noble Baroness that we need to take heart. Feedback has come back from one company that has managed to install Green Deal measures into 10,000 homes. The picture is not always as clear cut as measuring it only against Green Deal financing, which slightly distorts the programme’s actual success. Yes, it is slow, but it is a slow-but-steady-progress programme; we would expect that, because it is a long-term programme.
My noble friend Lord Teverson asked whether switching would have an impact on the rights of the customer. The customer is able to switch suppliers exactly as he or she can currently do. What they cannot do it switch to smaller suppliers that do not service the Green Deal programme. That is obviously something of which consumers will be made aware.
The noble Baroness, Lady Worthington, asked what would happen when a property was demolished or ceased to exist. The owners would still be liable to pay because the Green Deal would still be in place. She also asked about the regulations for the private rented sector. We plan to consult shortly on new regulations to require landlords to improve their homes from 2018. From 2016, landlords should not really be able
to refuse measures if the regulations make them put the measures in. We ultimately want housing stock with energy-efficiency measures, to reduce energy usage and ensure that tenants in those buildings do not end up paying over the odds for energy use.
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The noble Baroness asked about the EPC regime and whether it was poorly enforced. We are working very closely with the DCLG to improve EPC compliance. We have our own contract with it for Green Deal assessment. Those discussions are ongoing to ensure that incoming tenants are able to access as full a picture as possible of the property that they are about to rent with all the measures that are in place there.
The noble Baroness asked about how we get the feedback about people taking up measures. Social research is being delivered through a well respected independent research company that has actually taken evidence three ways. It has interviewed more than 1,500 people. Those responses will be published on the DECC website so will be there for public viewing.
Overall, it is useful that we have had this amendment put in place. It is helpful that the Committee sees it as a supportive and good amendment to have in place to protect both the tenant and the landlord. It is gaining momentum. It has the potential to help customers to install energy measures across the country. However, my department continues to review the Green Deal. That is right and correct. We will make changes where we can make improvements. It is right that we have constructive debates towards that. I have always said to the noble Baroness, Lady Worthington, and my noble friend that it is right that we are able to have these exchanges so that we can make the process easier and better for consumers. Ultimately, we all share the same goals. We want energy-efficient buildings.