Parliament and Politics: Energy-saving Bill risks cool reception

ALAN BEITH'S widely supported energy-saving Bill encounters its High Noon soon after lunch today, with its Second Reading debate in the House of Commons.

If enacted, the Bill would compel local councils to carry out surveys into energy saving in all homes, both public and private sector, within their boundaries. They would have to draw up strategies to save energy through more efficient insulation and heating systems and set targets for saving fuel and power.

Supporters of the Bill have had meetings with ministers, but yesterday the Department of the Environment said the Government had still not decided whether to support or oppose it.

Because Mr Beith, MP for Berwick-upon-Tweed and the Liberal Democrats' chief Treasury spokesman, came second in the private members' ballot, his Bill receives generous time for debate - up to five hours. But with the Commons sparsely attended on Fridays, rules of procedure mean it could be killed off by a few opponents. The debate must end by 2.30pm.

Backers - who include Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, Help the Aged and the Association for the Conservation of Energy - fear that MPs who have consultancies with large energy companies might emerge as assassins.

Mr Beith says the initial costs per council would be about pounds 50,000, and up to pounds 8,000 a year thereafter. He claims it could achieve major savings in household energy bills and curb acid rain and global warming.

He has support from MPs in nearly all of the parties. But John Gummer, Secretary of State for the Environment, has said he would prefer the obligations the Bill places on councils to be voluntary.