Full Council | How everyone voted on the Energy Bill Revolution

A recorded vote on my Notice of Motion was called for by Cllr Greg Sheldon under Standing Order 27:

VOTING AT COUNCIL

(1) The mode of voting at meetings of the Council shall be by show of hands: providing

that on the requisition of any member of the Council made before the vote is taken

and supported by five other members, the voting on any question shall be by roll call

and shall be recorded so as to show how each member present and voting gave

his/her vote. The name of any member present and not voting shall also be

recorded. In the event of an equality of votes the Lord Mayor shall have a second or

casting vote.

Here's how everyone voted:

1	Cllr Margaret	Baldwin	Topsham	CON	AGAINST
2	Cllr Phil	Bialyk	Exwick	LAB	FOR
3	Cllr Simon	Bowkett	Pinhoe	LAB	Apologies
4	Cllr Richard	Branston	Newtown	LAB	FOR
5	Cllr Stella	Brock	St Davids	LIB DEM	FOR
6	Cllr Paul	Bull	Cowick	LAB	FOR
7	Cllr Marcel	Choules	Priory	LAB	Apologies
8	Cllr Margaret	Clark	Alphington	LAB	FOR
9	Cllr  Rob	Crew	Alphington	LAB	FOR
10	Cllr Tyna	Crow	Heavitree	CON	Abstain
11	Cllr Catherine	Dawson	Minchinglake	LAB	Apologies
12	Cllr Rosie	Denham	Whipton Barton	LAB	FOR
13	Cllr Jake	Donovan	Pennsylvania	CON	AGAINST
14	Cllr Pete	Edwards	Whipton Barton	LAB	FOR
15	Cllr Adrian	Fullam	St Thomas	LIB DEM	FOR
16	Cllr Rob	Hannaford	St Thomas	LAB	FOR
17	Cllr Yolanda	Henson	Polsloe	CON	AGAINST
18	Cllr David	Henson	St Loyes	CON	Apologies
19	Cllr Sarah	Laws	St Davids	LAB	FOR
20	Cllr Andrew	Leadbetter	Topsham	CON	Abstain
21	Cllr Rachel	Lyons	Polsloe	LAB	FOR
22	Cllr Moira	Macdonald	Pinhoe	LAB	FOR
23	Cllr Ian	Martin	Mincinglake	LAB	FOR
24	Cllr Keith	Mitchell	St James	LIB DEM	FOR
25	Cllr Heather	Morris	Cowick	LAB	FOR
26	Cllr Lee	Mottram	Duryard	CON	Abstain
27	Cllr Rob	Newby	Topsham	CON	Abstain
28	Cllr Keith	Owen	St James	LAB	FOR
29	Cllr Tim	Payne	Pennsylvania	LIB DEM	FOR
30	Cllr Ollie	Pearson	Exwick	LAB	FOR
31	Cllr Percy	Prowse	Duryard	CON	Abstain
32	Cllr Lesley	Roson	Priory	LAB	FOR
33	Cllr Rod	Ruffle	Alphington	LIB DEM	FOR
34	Cllr Greg	Sheldon	Heavitree	LAB	FOR
35	Cllr Norman	Shiel	St Leonards	CON	Abstain
36	Cllr Roger	Spackman	Newtown	LAB	FOR
37	Cllr Rachel	Sutton	Exwick	LAB	FOR
38	Cllr Gill	Tippins	Priory	LAB	FOR
39	Cllr Tony	Wardle	Whipton Barton	LAB	FOR
40	Cllr John	Winterbottom	St Leonards	CON	Abstain

So the voting was:
28 FOR
3   AGAINST
5  Abstentions
4  Apologies for absence

Full Council | Response to the debate on Energy Bill Revolution

Here's my response to the debate on my Notice of Motion:

It's been a fascinating debate but very little I heard from the bench opposite has been about the motion

I've been planning the table this motion before the conference season 

(see here for when I first heard about the Energy Bill Campaign)

The 150 organisations supporting this Energy Bill Revolution include 

The Scouts Association - the Cooperative Group - eon – Warrington Borough Council - Rethink Mental Illness - Keep Britain Tidy - Asda - WWF - Fire Brigade Union

201 MPs have signed the petition - MPS of all hues

I' m sorry that neither of Exeter's MPs are absent from that list

Cllr Shiel

Suggests that this has no relevance to the business of this council

I believe that 6000 families in this city facing fuel poverty IS the business of this council.

17 other councils have decided it is their business and have already signed the Energy Bill Revolution

Cllr Leadbetter

Yes, there are green taxes but figures I received earlier today say that the cost decommissioning Nuclear Power stations are also included - and they currently stand at twice that of green taxes

Cllr Ruffle

Yes, The Green Deal hasn't worked

This is a new vision of looking at using £4 billion per year to address fuel poverty here in Exeter and beyond

Cllr Donovan

Please go back to he motion

This isn't about Ed Miliband's freeze

I repeat again, each and every 1 of the Big 6 companies already have fixed tariffs now

Ineed, I signed up to one last week

I thank Cllr Henson for her calculations

And her history lesson - but I'm looking to the future

None of this is about price rises or new taxes

It's about using the carbon taxes currently collected by the

Govt and redirect them To tackle fuel poverty

Full Council Notice of Motion | Energy Bill Revolution

My speech to Full Council on my Notice of Motion on  a way forward in tackling the crisis of fuel poverty:

We are facing an energy bill crisis, with millions of people nationwide struggling to heat their homes.

It is estimated that 5,957 families in Exeter are currently in fuel poverty

What does that mean?

It means that nearly 6000 households in Exeter need to spend more than 10% of their income on keeping their homes warm.

And the problem is likely to get worse,

with 1 in 3 households projected to be in fuel poverty by 2016 compared with 1 in 5 now.

There are 2 main reasons for this crisis

Gas, oil and coal prices are high,

And the UK’s homes are some of the most energy inefficient in Europe – leaking heat from their doors, walls and windows.

This means they cost much more than they should to heat and power, and that contributes to climate change too.

Cold homes are damaging the health of vulnerable members of society, including children, older people and people with disabilities.

Diseases such as asthma are made worse, and people are more likely to have strokes and heart attacks.

Illnesses caused by cold homes cost the NHS nearly one billion pounds each year.

But there is a fair and permanent solution to this crisis

We can have warm homes, reduce our fuel bills and cut carbon emissions.

The answer is for the Government to use the money it gets from carbon taxes to help make homes super-energy efficient – with excellent insulation, renewable energy and modern boilers.

Even though these things save money on energy bills and keep our homes warmer, many people simply can’t afford to pay for them – meaning they stay cold.

That’s why the Government must provide more funding to help.

The funding is there – from carbon taxes used to help combat climate change

What about the current funding of the failing Green Deal scheme?

That Green Deal that will spark an energy efficiency and home improvement revolution

A Freedom of Information request in August this year revealed that some £20 million has been spent on administering the Green Deal

That’s in addition to some £244 million set aside in loans to pay for measures such as a new boiler, loft insulation or solar panels

Yet figures published by the Department of Energy and Climate Change show despite 38,256 assessments having been conducted, but as last week 961 of these had been signed by the customer.

All this hot air (no pun intended) and only 961 sign up?

That means probably 3 households in Exeter have signed up.

Nearly 6000 families face fuel poverty in Exeter and only 3 households sign up to a deal that will spark an energy efficiency and home improvement revolution

The figure falls farcically short of the target ministers had set of 10,000 by the end of the year.

At current rates, it could take 160 years for all of the UK's housing to benefit.

Companies who were taking on staff to cope with the demand are now laying them off.

The fact that over 95% of people who had a Green Deal assessment didn’t want to take out a package should be a wake-up call for the government

So wakey wakey – Mchael Fallon, George Osborn and David Cameron

Over the next 15 years the Government will raise an average of £4 billion every year in carbon taxes.

If the Government recycled this carbon revenue back to households, it could provide billions of pounds to help insulate the UK’s homes. The benefits would be immense.

This could bring 9 out of 10 homes out of fuel poverty, lower people’s bills, cut carbon emissions AND create jobs.

It’s time for an Energy Bill Revolution.

This money could be used to help all households or just to support the most vulnerable.

There is, for example, enough carbon tax revenue to treat 600,000 fuel poor households every year, providing each of them with a grant worth on average £6,500 to install energy efficiency measures. This would reduce their energy bills by an average £310 a year.

Recycling carbon revenue to make homes super-energy efficient could bring 9 out of 10 homes out of fuel poverty. It could also be used to quadruple savings in carbon emissions compared to the Government’s new energy efficiency schemes and create up to 200,000 jobs – exactly what we need to support the UK’s economic recovery.

I’d like Exeter City Council to join The Energy Bill Revolution  - a movement of people committed to ensuring warm homes and lower bills for all.

It is a public alliance, made up of over 150 major organisations

children’s and older people’s charities,

environmental groups,

health and disability groups,

trade unions,

consumer groups,

businesses, politicians and public figures.

The Liberal Democats agreed to back the campaign when they voted through the “Green Growth, Green Jobs” policy paper at their conference on Sunday 15^th September.

A commitment to use carbon revenue to insulate fuel poor homes has  become official liberal democrat party policy.

At the Labour conference, the party announced that they would scrap the Green Deal and Energy Company Obligation and replace them with more effective policies.

But nothing on this matter at the Conservative Party Conference – and I should know.

At times during the conference, I was rated by MHP Communications as in top 10 of #Tory social media influencers/

Even the Big 6 Energy companies have signed up,

Yes those baddies who complain about Ed Miliband’s pseudo-Marxist plans to freeze energy prices after the General Election because it will put them out of business

Those self-same Big 6 Energy companies, each of who already offer at least 1 tariff that is frozen to 2015 or beyond.

Frozen prices can help them earn business now, but not in 2015.

Thatcher privatized the energy market to increase competition – now Cameron complains there isn’t enough competition.

But its not competition we need now to solve the crisis of fuel poverty

It’s co-operation

I hope you will all support this resolution

Notice of Motion | An Energy Bill Revolution - Reducing Fuel Bills through Energy Efficiency

I have asked for the following motion to be discussed at the next Full Council meeting on Tuesday 15 October, under Standing Order 6

Energy Bill Revolution - Reducing Fuel Bills through Energy EfficiencyThe Council notes:

1. Already 1 in 4 households in the UK are in fuel poverty, meaning they need to spend more than 10% of their income on keeping their homes warm. The problem is likely to get worse, with 1 in 3 households projected to be in fuel poverty by 2016.

2. The main reasons for this crisis are that gas, oil and coal prices are high, and the UK’s homes are some of the most energy inefficient in Europe – leaking heat from their doors, walls and windows.

3. Cold homes are damaging the health of vulnerable members of society, including children, older people and people with disabilities. Diseases such as asthma are made worse, and people are more likely to have strokes and heart attacks. Illnesses caused by cold homes cost the NHS nearly one billion pounds each year.

4. Over the next 15 years the Government will raise an average of £4 billion every year in carbon taxes through the European Emissions Trading Scheme and the Carbon Floor Price. Recycling this revenue back into households could bring 9 out of 10 homes out of fuel poverty, lower people’s bills, cut carbon emissions and create jobs.

The Council therefore resolves to:

1.  Support the Energy Bill Revolution campaign calling for the Government to recycle revenues from carbon taxes into improving the energy efficiency of UK homes.

2. Notify local Members of Parliament of its support for the campaign and urge them to support the campaign by emailing MPsupporters@energybillrevolution.org.

My contribution to #CoopParty Debate on Economy policy paper

The Co-operative Party has changed how it runs it conference this year. Instead of deabating motions - some often mutually exclusive - that go nowhere, this year the format is to debate 6 policy papers that have been produced by the NEC. 

Local branches have had chance to contribute to in the drafting process and some of these submissions. Missing policy ideas are able to be added.

The first policy area to be debated was The Economy based on this policy paper

Debate 1. Economy (60 mins)

There were twenty three separate party submissions on the Economy. Twenty one of the submissions were either included or related to other policy papers. 

Two policy ideas have been recommended to the CAC for debate and vote (see below).

1. An incoming Labour and Co-operative government will appoint a government Minister with a specific remit for working with co-operatives and third sector social enterprises in order to help improve their sustainability. 

Yorkshire and Humberside Party

NEC Recommendation: FOR VOTE

2. Fighting the recession and unemployment.The Party should campaign as one of its major priorities, for the introduction of the Living Wage as the best solution to the low wage and benefits income strategy. Also, short term and zero hours contracts in the job market should be phased out.

South West Party

NEC Recommendation: NEC asks to include a vote on the minimum wage being raised to a living wage.This would remove the competitive disadvantage to co-operatives of paying the living wage where their rivals do not.

As part of the discussion on the policy saver. I had this to say in support of the SW Party Council policy idea on the Living Wage 

Paul Bull

Labour and Co-operative Councillor on Exeter City Council

and South West Party delegate

I am proud to say that 30 employees of Exeter City Council will find an extra special Christmas bonus in their December 2013 pay packet

From that date, each and every employee working for Exeter City Council - not of one whom has a zero-hours contract - will receive the Living Wage.

We do this not because we have to - but because we want to.

The Living Wage is a bench mark of good practice and we hope that many businesses in Exeter and beyond will follow our lead.

I would like to see any company that pays a dividend to shareholders being forced to pay the Living Wage

But I am concerned by the NEC recommendation - that the statutory National Minimum Wage should be raised to the Living Wage.

I cannot find fault with the ideal and aspiration - it's the wording of the recommendation gives me a problem.

I work in theatre -

co-operative working models and methods abound

But low pay is endemic and many emerging companies struggle now to pay the minimum wage

To raise this overnight to the level of the Living Wage would remove for opportunities theatre practitioners

I would like see the National Minimum Wage raised year on year to converge towards  he level of verbs Living Wage.

It is only with this proviso can I ask you to support the NEC recommendation