Domestic Gas and Electricity (Tariff Cap) Bill

Alan Brown Excerpts

Wednesday 18th July 2018 Commons Chamber

[Alan Brown (Kilmarnock and Loudoun) (SNP)]

It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Weston-super-Mare (John Penrose), and I pay tribute to his work, as well as that of the right hon. Member for Don Valley (Caroline Flint) and my hon. Friend the Member for North Ayrshire and Arran (Patricia Gibson). The hon. Gentleman lost me a wee bit at the end when he compared the amendment in lieu to the nuclear deterrent. Apart from that, I concurred with his comments.

I will be brief, because there seems to be consensus across the House, and will simply outline my thoughts on the Lords amendment and the Government amendment. When Labour originally tabled the Lords amendment, I chose to abstain because, as I said at the time, I remained unconvinced by the arguments. Labour was against a relative cap, so it seemed anomalous to me to introduce a relative measure on a permanent basis. The risks and arguments are the same about the relative aspect—it really does risk increasing the price of standard variable tariffs and there is a further risk that if that came into operation in the absence of an absolute cap, we might see prices creep up again, which would be counter-productive.

The Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee was against the absolute cap when it did its pre-legislative scrutiny. Consumer organisations were against it and even the Competition and Markets Authority has outlined where relative aspects have not worked in other sectors, so why would they work in this situation? That was certainly the concern. There seems to be cross-party agreement that an absolute cap is a temporary measure, so this would effectively be a temporary Bill. Why introduce a permanent measure into the Bill?

One good thing about the Lords getting the amendment through is that it has clearly allowed the Government to rethink and it is clear that the Government have worked with the Opposition to strengthen the Bill. They have agreed to introduce these measures, which basically instruct Ofgem to review the operation of the absolute cap and how it affects customers, including the most vulnerable, and to ensure that the companies take action to protect those customers. I welcome the Government’s amendment and, given the cross-party consensus, it is time to get on with it and get the Bill finished, and for the Government to concentrate on getting cheaper energy through renewables and by scrapping nuclear.