Ed Miliband

I am always glad to deliver the Liberal Democrats a late Christmas present. I agree with some of the hon. Lady’s points, particularly on our dependence on fossil fuels and on why clean energy is the way to give us energy security and sovereignty in a dangerous world. I want to reassure her on insulation. As I said to my hon. Friend the Member for Sefton Central (Bill Esterson), we continue to see a really important role for insulation, but I hope that she and other Members of the House will agree that what matters when we invest public money is what will do most to tackle the affordability crisis, and that is our test. Insulation is absolutely a key part of that. On the ECO supply chain, I will expand a little on what I said earlier to my hon. Friend. We recognise, and I know from my own personal conversations, the issues facing organisations in the supply chain. That is why we are going to make sure that the £1.5 billion, which is on top of the £13 billion or so that was previously allocated to the warm homes plan, is spent through the ECO installers to help them make the transition to the new system. My hon. Friend the Member for Inverclyde and Renfrewshire West (Martin McCluskey) is getting to work straight away on a group representing the installers and local authorities, which are obviously going to be responsible for the procurement and the spending, because we want to do everything we can to help the supply chain.