Baroness Bloomfield of Hinton Waldrist (Con)

I thank the Minister for his introduction of this statutory instrument. This order extends the energy company obligation end date by nine months to ensure an orderly transition for consumers and suppliers to help meet existing targets. This extension was determined following consultation and following the calls of business. On that basis, we on these Benches support the order. The ECO was established to help households reduce energy consumption and lower heating costs. Since it was launched in 2013, around 4.4 million measures have been installed in 2.6 million properties, up to the end of September 2025. ECO4 is the latest version of that scheme, beginning in 2022. It has meant that approximately 949,800 measures have been installed in around 281,000 households. It is of course right that, where there were non-compliant installations, installers fund the repair work, overseen by Ofgem and insured by further on-site audits. We have already committed to working cross-party to ensure that affected households receive the remediation they deserve. We understand that the Government now seek to end this scheme and replace it with their warm homes plan to provide loans and grants to households instead; indeed, they have claimed that this will result in a £150 cut from the average household bill. However, although the end of the ECO scheme means that households will no longer pay the levy through their energy bills, the new plan will be funded through taxation. There is no clarity, therefore, that this will end up saving taxpayers money in the long term; indeed, the new taxpayer funding initiative, coupled with rising energy costs—particularly now—and already high installation costs, mean that it looks increasingly unlikely that the Government will be replacing the ECO with an improvement. Have the Government made any assessment of how much taxpayers will save overall? To what extent are these projections reliant on projected energy costs, which will now be redundant? Oil prices are already 50% higher than in the OBR’s projection last week. I appreciate that these questions are about issues that are outside the Minister’s control, but they have ramifications for the Government’s policy. Is it really wise to push forward with tax-and-spend green policies, which will likely do little to reduce costs, at a time of global instability? I understand that these are also developing events and that they do not directly relate to the functioning of the ECO. Returning to that, it would be helpful to clarify how much money taxpayers will now be expected to pay to cover the cost of this new extension period. As I have stated, I support the extension to ensure an orderly transition, but the public must know what they will pay. I restate our support for this order to help consumers and suppliers but, more broadly, we remain concerned that the Government’s plan will, ultimately, not save taxpayers money. I look forward to hearing the Minister’s response.