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Warm Front Scheme

Volume 494: debated on Monday 15 June 2009

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change how many people have received grants under the Warm Front scheme in each year since its inception; and what categories of information his Department collects on successful applicants to the scheme. (265727)

[holding answer 23 March 2009]: The following table details the number of households assisted by the Warm Front scheme in each year since its inception:

Number

2000-01

97,616

2001-02

307,678

2002-03

219,328

2003-04

188,974

2004-05

208,084

2005-06

173,184

2006-07

253,079

2007-08

268,900

2008-09

233,594

To determine their eligibility for Warm Front, the scheme manager collects the following information from all applicants to the scheme: name, date of birth, ethnicity, address and telephone number; evidence of tenure (and landlord information if a rented property); and evidence of receipt of benefit. When benefits are related to other members of the household these details are also required.

For successful applicants, additional information is also collected on the property, including the name of the energy supplier, number of residents and property data required to complete the Reduced Data Standard Assessment Procedure which enables the scheme manager to determine the increase in the energy efficiency of a household as an outcome of the measures installed.

All data are handled fully in accordance with the Data Protection Act.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change how many complaints have been received by his Department regarding the quality of Warm Front heating installations in the last 12 months. (265990)

The Department has only recently begun to record the number of complaints received in respect of Warm Front heating installations. As such, we cannot provide consolidated data for this period.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what cash in bank requirement there is for Warm Front contractors. (265992)

All registered installers are required to provide a performance bond of £25,000 to cover remedial work and other potential liabilities for up to two years after they cease to be on the scheme.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what the average Warm Front grant per heating installation has been for each sub-contractor under the scheme. (265993)

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what payments have been made by his Department to (a) Eaga and (b) its associated companies in each of the last eight years. (265994)

The following table shows the payments made by DECC and its predecessor Department to Eaga since the beginning of this phase of the Warm Front scheme in 2005, alongside the total grant spend for this year. All payments to installers and suppliers working on Warm Front are made through Eaga.

The final column shows the total value of these payments that are retained by Eaga in scheme management fees and their subsidiary organisations that work on Warm Front. The amount paid to the subsidiary organisations does not exceed 30 per cent. of the work available in any period.

£000

Scheme year

Warm Front budget-allocated spend

Sum of payments1

Payments retained by Eaga or subsidiaries

2005-06

187,286

171,928

45,070

2006-07

315,000

317,111

101,654

2007-08

350,000

377,509

127,020

2008-092

377,562

385,125

135,052

1 Warm Front has generated income through trading energy savings to energy suppliers to help them meet their Energy Efficiency Commitment/Carbon Emissions Reduction Target obligations. This income is then used to provide more measures through Warm Front. Therefore the sum of monies paid by the Department to Eaga exceeds the budget allocation in some years.

2 The data for the 2008-09 financial year run to 28 February 2009.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change how many former officials of his Department and its predecessors now work for Eaga and its associated companies. (265995)

Two former officials of predecessor Departments are currently employed by the Eaga group of companies.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change how many Warm Front heating installations have been inspected by his Department's officials. (265997)

DECC has appointed an independent quality assessor, White Young Green, to carry out such inspections on its behalf. These inspections, carried out on a random sample of jobs, assess the quality of the installation in terms of workmanship, health and safety, and adherence to scheme specifications. White Young Green reports back to the Department on its findings through bi-yearly audit reports and other ad hoc audits requested by the Department.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change how many visits Ministers in his Department and its predecessor have made to properties where Warm Front heating has been installed in the last 12 months. (266088)

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change pursuant to the answer of 5 March 2009, Official Report, column 1807W, on Warm Front scheme: lighting, on what assumptions calculations using the industry standard software of the carbon abatement accruing from the Warm Front scheme are based. (267005)

No assumptions are made in this respect. Under the terms of the Warm Front contract, Eaga is required to calculate the standard assessment procedure (SAP) ratings using SAP2001 (the industry standard software).

This software does not recognise any contribution by compact fluorescent light bulbs to carbon savings. We are unable to comment on the assumptions on which this software makes calculations as the Department is not the writer of the software.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change how many boilers installed under the Warm Front scheme in (a) Sutton and Cheam constituency and (b) England have required repair on (i) one, (ii) two, (iii) three and (iv) four or more occasions; and if he will make a statement. (267226)

The latest period for which figures are available is 1 September 2007 to 25 March 2009. The following data show system repairs (including although not exclusively pertaining to boiler repairs) in Sutton and Cheam and England respectively.

Sutton and Cheam

England

1 visit

93

66,436

2 visits

40

20,384

3 visits

7

6,227

4 visits

2

2,967

Total properties covered

519

372,775

Total properties visited

142

96,014

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change how many domestic properties have received insulation improvements under the Warm Front scheme since its inception. (271333)

[holding answer 27 April 2009]: During the contracted period, June 2005 to end of scheme year 2008-09 (31 March), the Warm Front scheme has installed insulation in 337,084 households across England.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change how many companies Eaga plc have removed from the approved supplier list for the Warm Front scheme in (a) the East Midlands and (b) England since the scheme’s introduction. (274366)

Eaga has managed Warm Front in the East Midlands since 2005, and cannot provide information on installers prior to that date. Since 2005, no installer in the East Midlands or nationally has been removed from the scheme by Eaga.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change which companies Eaga plc has removed from the approved supplier list for the Warm Front scheme in (a) North West Cambridgeshire constituency, (b) Cambridgeshire, (c) the East of England and (d) the UK since the introduction of the scheme. (275238)

Since the start of the current phase of the Warm Front scheme in 2005, no installer in (a) North West Cambridgeshire constituency, (b) Cambridgeshire, (c) the East of England or (d) nationally has been removed from the scheme by Eaga, but eight have left the scheme.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change how many (a) lofts and (b) cavities were insulated through the Warm Front programme in each of the last three years. (277822)

The following tables show the number of (a) lofts and (b) cavities insulated through the Warm Front programme in each of the last three years, and in the current year to date.

2006-07

2007-08

2008-09

Current year to date1

(a) Lofts

61,368

60,652

57,104

13,360

(b) Cavities

36,237

31,227

27,100

6,871

1 29 March 2009 to 30 May 2009.