Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Baroness McIntosh of Pickering and Ed Davey(9 years, 10 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text
Mr Davey
I am always keen to listen to the hon. Gentleman. As he knows, I have read the report that he wrote on prepayment meters and their users, and am responding to it. However, his analysis of fuel poverty was wrong on at least two counts. First—as he will see when we publish our poverty strategy shortly—the energy companies obligation, along with other measures that we have taken, has already helped many fuel-poor households during the current Parliament, Those measures are a significant step forward. Secondly, the way in which we are reforming those measures is helping even more people.
The hon. Gentleman suggested that Estonia was the only EU country with a higher proportion of people in fuel poverty than Britain. I do not know whether he has looked at the way in which the EU and individual EU member states compile fuel poverty statistics, but I do not think that it enables him to reach that conclusion.
Miss Anne McIntosh (Thirsk and Malton) (Con)
I, for one, congratulate the Secretary of State and welcome the new regulations, which will bring relief to many people living in poorly insulated rented accommodation in my area. However, may I press him to define the minimum level of energy efficiency more clearly?
Mr Davey
I am delighted that the hon. Lady welcomes the new regulations, which will make a significant difference by requiring landlords to raise the energy performance certificate rating of their properties to a minimum of band E by 1 April 2018. We believe that that will help about 1 million tenants over the next three years.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Baroness McIntosh of Pickering and Ed Davey
Mr Davey
My hon. Friend is absolutely right; energy-efficiency should be at the heart of our policies. Our new fuel poverty target is focused on energy-efficiency for the very reasons he outlined. I can tell him, and announce to the House today, that up to October this year the green deal and the energy companies obligation have together led to more than 1 million energy-efficiency measures being installed, producing permanent reductions in energy bills, this Christmas and every Christmas.
Miss Anne McIntosh (Thirsk and Malton) (Con)
I wish to place on the record the contribution of the warm home discount scheme to Thirsk, Malton and Filey. Does my right hon. Friend agree that it would have been particularly ill-advised to have frozen energy prices at the time a certain party was recommending that policy?
Mr Davey
Indeed, one danger of the regulatory approach is not only that it discourages investment and reduces competition, but that one can freeze prices at a high level. The benefits of competition and falling wholesale prices will mean that bills will come down—indeed, people can save on their bills through the competition we have stimulated.
Miss Anne McIntosh (Thirsk and Malton) (Con)
T6. May I correct my right hon. Friend the Minister of State on one point? Other than one example, there has been no deep well fracking for shale gas in this country. In Fylde, self-regulation and self-monitoring were proved disastrously wrong. Will he give the House a commitment that there will be no self-monitoring or self-regulation but a very cautious approach, and that the regulatory authorities will monitor seismic and other aspects of fracking at depth for shale gas?
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Baroness McIntosh of Pickering and Ed Davey
Mr Davey
We have been reforming the energy markets since day one, but we were not happy enough with the results and we wanted to do more, because of the mess we had inherited. That is why we asked the competition authorities to look at this matter. They have proposed a market investigation reference, and we are completely behind that. Neither we nor Ofgem are going to stand still during that 18 months, however. We are going to be working on trying to improve the markets even before the market investigation reference reports. We are being really active on reducing switching times, for example. We also want to push the smart meter roll-out programme, which will help people, and the Ofgem retail market review will complete and implement its proposals, including taking customers off dead tariffs. We have acted, we are acting and we will continue to act on behalf of customers. The last Government failed to do so.
Miss Anne McIntosh (Thirsk and Malton) (Con)
Will my right hon. Friend take this opportunity to examine the role of the regulator, Ofgem, in improving and increasing competition? How is it that above-inflation—sometimes double-digit—price increases have been allowed, when they are not allowed in other sectors, such as water?
Mr Davey
Price controls were taken off this sector in 2002, so Ofgem does not have the power to control prices. Hon. Members should remind themselves that it was the Labour party that took the price controls off. We want to ensure that the regulatory framework and the policies are correct. That is one of the reasons we are pushing the policies that we have adopted. It is also interesting to remind colleagues of the record of the Labour party and its leader. When he was doing my job in 2009, the right hon. Gentleman talked about reforming Ofgem, saying that
“the regulator needs stronger powers to deal with abuse, and the Bill will specifically act to prevent the exploitation of market power by energy generators.”—[Official Report, 24 November 2009; Vol. 501, c. 412.]
What went wrong with Labour’s plans when it was in government?
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Baroness McIntosh of Pickering and Ed Davey(10 years, 11 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text
Mr Davey
As the hon. Gentleman will know, Ofgem regulates the distribution network operators to ensure that they perform adequately, but the whole industry does a huge amount of work—along with Ofgem and my Department—to ensure that proper preparations are made. Between 24 and 28 December, unprecedented severe weather affected all parts of the country, and it was not possible to make preparations that rely on mutual aid because all the distribution network operators needed their staff. We certainly have lessons to learn from that unprecedented set of events.
Miss Anne McIntosh (Thirsk and Malton) (Con)
Our thoughts and prayers are with Paul Goggins and his family today.
In 2007, when we experienced severe surface water flooding, there was an audit of all the critical infrastructure, and a decision was made to move those who were most vulnerable to flooding to higher ground. Would another such audit be timely following the unprecedented flooding that occurred over the Christmas period?
Mr Davey
If an audit is recommended in the review that I have instigated, we will of course proceed with it. I must stress, however, that more than 750,000 homes lost power between 24 and 28 December, and 93% of them were reconnected within 24 hours. I do not, of course, underestimate the difficulties experienced by people whose Christmases were ruined and who lost power for more than 48 hours—15,000 houses were affected in that way—but I think that we should see them in proportion. The industry did a very good job, and its preparedness has greatly improved in recent years.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Baroness McIntosh of Pickering and Ed Davey
Miss Anne McIntosh (Thirsk and Malton) (Con)
3. What representations he has received on the level of green levies; and if he will make a statement.
The Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change (Mr Edward Davey)
I have had a number of representations on the level of green levies, and the Government expect to make a statement on the conclusions of our current review shortly.
Miss McIntosh
I am grateful to my right hon. Friend for that reply. There is concern not only about the increase of the green levies, but about a lack of choice in where the green levies go. Is it feasible that on a household energy bill there could be a box for people to tick to show their preferred renewable to support?
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Baroness McIntosh of Pickering and Ed Davey
Miss Anne McIntosh (Thirsk and Malton) (Con)
The co-firing of biomass at power stations such as Drax brings enormous opportunities to growers and farmers in Thirsk and Malton, but will the Minister or Secretary of State assure the House that unfair subsidies to imported wood chip are not undermining our home-grown produce?
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Baroness McIntosh of Pickering and Ed Davey
Mr Davey
Thanks to the deal that we have negotiated and that the Deputy Prime Minister has announced, those pensioners in the hon. Lady’s constituency will be written to every year by their energy supplier and advised of the best tariff for them. Furthermore, because of the warm home discount for which this Government have legislated, 600,000 of the poorest pensioners in the country are getting a direct discount of £120 off their energy bills. That is real action.
Miss Anne McIntosh (Thirsk and Malton) (Con)
Will the Secretary of State commend the work of the Energy Saving Trust on reducing household bills? Will he also point it in the direction of reducing the cost of heating water, as a means of reducing overall energy costs, by heating only the water that a household needs to use each day?