To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change how much has been spent from the public purse on insulating the homes of pensioners in (a) Test Valley borough, (b) the ceremonial county of Hampshire and (c) the City of Southampton in each of the last five years. (261546)

Funding to encourage take-up of energy efficiency measures in Great Britain is available primarily through two schemes: the Carbon Emissions Reduction Target (CERT) and Warm Front, but only Warm Front is funded from the public purse. The tables illustrate the investment made by Warm Front in insulation measures to improve the energy efficiency of householders over 60 in (a) Test Valley borough, (b) the ceremonial county of Hampshire and (c) the City of Southampton in each year since 2005.

CERT is operated and funded by the six major energy suppliers, which are required to meet targets by encouraging households to take-up energy efficiency measures, including insulation and high-efficiency lights and appliances. Ofgem, the scheme administrator, does not collect data on energy supplier spend. However, based on the costs of the measures promoted by energy suppliers, we estimate that the overall spend by energy suppliers on delivering their CERT obligations across Great Britain will exceed £3 billion over the period 2008-11.