November 2012: This was the question asked of the Mayor at last week’s Question Time session with the London Assembly in City Hall. The transcript of the discussion has just been posted on the GLA’s website – the fuel poverty section runs from pages 43-46. The Mayor responded with the following points:
- On recent increases in energy prices the Mayor stated that “We have repeatedly had the energy companies in . What they are getting away with at the moment is the claim that they are obliged to spend so much on renewables and energy efficiency of one kind or another and their claim is that that is pushing up the cost of providing energy. Whether or not that is true is very, very hard for me to evaluate.”
- The Mayor has brought up London’s specific energy issues directly with DECC – “I have been in touch with Greg Barker who is responsible for this and my Office has been in touch with the Department repeatedly for a long time.”
- That “we are committed to expanding our policy of retrofitting. I do not pledge that we can do that in all homes and in many cases the housing stock in London does not make it easy for us to do this but we are going ahead, as I say, with a programme that I think not only offers the opportunity for home owners to cut their bills but also offers massive scope for employment. I think it is a shame that successive Governments have not taken this up more vigorously.”