Reading West MP Martin Salter said that he was “disappointed” that a Private Member’s Bill designed to eradicate fuel poverty had failed at its first Parliamentary hurdle on Friday 20^th March. The Fuel Poverty Bill followed House of Commons Early Day Motion 1069 entitled “Fuel Poverty” which has been signed by 172 Members of Parliament, including Martin Salter.

The Fuel Poverty Bill would have obliged the Government to ensure that the homes of those living in fuel poverty are brought up to a high standard of energy efficiency, using super insulation and renewable energy technologies. It would also have introduced a mandatory ’social tariff’ scheme where people who struggle to heat their home would get help to ensure they pay the lowest energy prices until their house is brought up to a high standard of energy efficiency.

This Bill, that would have especially benefited pensioners and other vulnerable groups, had its second reading in the House of Commons on Friday 20^th March and Mr Salter was there to lend his support. In spite of voting for a closure motion, which would have forced a vote on the Bill, there were not the required one hundred MPs present and the motion fell. This allowed the Bill to be talked out by its opponents,

Martin Salter said:-

“How disappointing for the most vulnerable in society that the House of Commons has not seen fit to lend its support to a Bill that would have protected them from the cold in the winter and the environment from carbon emissions. In this day and age in a country like Britain we should be well beyond the point at which anyone is suffering from the cold due to their homes leaking heat through poor insulation.”

He added:-

“I will continue to lobby Ministers, both in my capacity as the Labour Party Vice- Chair on the Environment and as a concerned constituency MP, to persuade them that action needs to be taken now to end the suffering of vulnerable people in Reading West and elsewhere.”