To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what steps he is taking to incentivise local councils to encourage people to make their homes more energy efficient; and if he will ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer for extra funding for councils to spend on this work. (110136)

The 1995 Home Energy Conservation Act requires local authorities with housing responsibility to prepare a strategy for improving energy efficiency within residential accommodation in their areas and report annually on progress. Since 1996, local authorities have reported an average total improvement of approximately 16.7 per cent. The Government are carrying out a review that will help inform policy on local authorities, with the aim of generating more effective action from them, and will report in due course.

The Energy Saving Trust, which is funded by the Government, encourages local authorities to develop energy efficiency strategies for their housing stock. The sustainable energy beacon councils have also been funded to develop a benchmark and toolkit that draws on their good practice. This will enable councils to evaluate their current performance and provide specific guidance to make improvements.

In the 2006 Climate Change Programme, the Government committed to ensure that the new Local Government Performance Framework will include an appropriate focus on action on climate change, sufficient to incentivise more authorities to reach the levels of the best. Further details can be found on the Defra website at:

http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/climatechange/uk/ukccp/index.htm.