Energy Price Cap: Residential Buildings with Communal Heating Systems
Debate between Matthew Pennycook and Meg Hillier(2 years, 8 months ago)
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Dame Meg Hillier
Thank you very much, Mr Hollobone; it is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship—hours have passed between the beginning and the end of the debate.
In many respects, the Minister summed up the feeling of colleagues present. It is instructive that a lot of London MPs were present for the debate. For all the talk about levelling up and about other areas of the country being poor, the cost of living in London is very high, and those on average incomes who live in properties with energy supplied by a heat network are doubly hit by the challenges of energy prices.
I am pleased that the Minister has reiterated that the Government are going ahead with long-term change. I am keen, and will continue to push, for additional support to be provided to those consumers because of the extremely large increases in their bills. The fact that local authorities are expected to use the hardship fund to support households is an important point, because that will be an extra drain on local authority budgets in constituencies and boroughs where lots of residents live in such properties. I undertake to do some more number-crunching in my constituency.
Dame Meg Hillier
I see that my hon. Friend is nodding. I think we will come back to the Minister on that, because that money should be distributed in a way that recognises that those households and vulnerable customers are hit hard by the additional high costs and really need support right now.
I thank the Minister and the shadow Minister, my hon. Friend the Member for Southampton, Test (Dr Whitehead), for their responses, and I thank all colleagues who have been supportive, including those who were unable to attend today.
Question put and agreed to.
Resolved,
That this House has considered the energy price cap and residential buildings with communal heating systems.