Earl Russell (LD)

My Lords, I rise to respond to the Warm Home Discount (England and Wales) Regulations 2026. As we all know, we are at the start of another fossil fuel price crisis, at a time when individuals and the state can least afford it, so bringing down energy bills and speeding up the deployment of renewables must be an absolute national priority. The renewed crisis in the Middle East has once again exposed families and small businesses to the full volatility of the fossil fuel price market. We support the extension of this scheme, but the questions that we want to ask are around its efficiency and its design for the decades ahead. As I said, we welcome the extension of the scheme to 2031 and the improvement in transparency and data sharing that this instrument introduces. Community matters, as does recognising that fuel poverty remains a persistent, not a temporary, problem. While I appreciate that this scheme was designed and extended before the present crisis, it will need to operate in its aftermath and the continuing process. The regulations fix the core rebate at £150 for the next five years. We all know how dramatically prices can move even in a single winter, let alone over half a decade. Energy markets are in flux at the moment, and these regulations will need to work over a long period of time. What concrete mechanisms will the Government use to review the adequacy of this £150 rebate during the life of the scheme? Are there any circumstances in which Ministers would consider increasing it—for example, if the fuel crisis continues? Without an automatic or at least a clearly defined review process, are we not effectively asking households in fuel poverty to gamble with their warmth in the face of a possible real rise in prices? Similarly, we welcome the fact that the aggregate non-core spending obligation will rise under this scheme, but it will rise only modestly, from £78 million in 2026 to £84 million by 2030. Taking into account inflation over those years and the levels of fuel poverty at the moment, if the present fuel crisis continues, is there any intention or ability to revisit that non-core spending figure mid-scheme if economic conditions or energy prices continue to accelerate? Do the Government plan to publish an annual assessment of whether the level of support is still adequate in real terms, rather than waiting until 2031, particularly in light of this real change in circumstances? Both previous noble Lords spoke about energy debt. Many households across the country are carrying unprecedented levels of energy arrears on their accounts. That continuing level of family debt is a real point of contention and a struggle for households. Against that, the industry-wide cap is to write off debts at a mere £6 million, with a £2,000 limit for individual households. That is absolutely welcome, but many families are already beyond those levels. Can more be done, and will there be a review within this programme? How did the Government arrive at £6 million? What assessment was made of the total scale of energy debt and have Ministers considered whether that cap should be more flexible, in case this crisis worsens? If the Minister will excuse me, I want to go slightly off-piste. I do not like to do that too often, but I really welcome some of the moves in this SI around data and data sharing. A lot more work needs to be done there so that we can target support efficiently and fairly to those who need it most. I have been looking at some of the work that Stonehaven has done. It has been raising arguments about moving from crude, one-size-fits-all interventions to a more nuanced understanding of household vulnerability, looking at income, health, energy use and property characteristics together and setting up a safeguard score for each household, using better data so that help can be better provided. That would mean we could target bill credits, tailored repayment plans and more generous debt relief to those in most severe need. I have a couple of questions for the Minister that perhaps go a bit beyond this SI. I really encourage the Government to do more work in this area. As they plan for a continuing fuel crisis, improving data sharing between government departments, moving beyond the DWP alone to include HMRC, health agencies and others, would be a really important exercise, particularly for the future. I note that the Minister said that he is expecting 98% of these payments to be made automatically, but in volume that 2% is still a large number of households that are falling outside the system and bill support. I would like to see the Government doing more on data sharing, particularly multi-agency. Far too often, people in fuel poverty are also in different kinds of poverty. There really should be a share-once support register, so I would also like the Government to do more on greater working between different utility providers so that, once someone is on a priority register, information can be shared across utilities and people do not have to give the same information over and over again. That is really important and it is something that we should include in Ofgem’s work with suppliers, but it is still a missing piece. Local authorities and charities often know much more about their local residents and households in poverty, so there is much more to do to make this data available and to include local authorities and charities in this process. I will be brief but, above and beyond this, I think there is a need for more structural reform around these issues. Others have spoken on this, but we need to decouple electricity prices from gas so that consumers feel the full benefits of cheaper, clean power. I really want the Government to look again at the possibility of taking forward a social tariff if the energy crisis continues. We need to do more to support households struggling with energy and fuel poverty. We welcome this SI. It is good to see these measures extended, as they are really important, but there is so much going on in this space. We welcome this SI as the start of a conversation, not the end of it.