UK Energy Costs

Alan Brown Excerpts

Thursday 8th September 2022 Commons Chamber

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

rose—

[Hon. Members]

Sit down!

--- Later in debate ---

[The Prime Minister]

As I was saying, for those using heating oil, those living in park homes or those on heat networks, we will set up a fund so that all UK consumers can benefit from equivalent support.

[Alan Brown]

rose—

[The Prime Minister]

I will give way to the hon. Gentleman.

[Alan Brown]

National Energy Action estimates that with the cap at the current level, 6.5 million households are in fuel poverty. If the level is raised to £2,500, how many more millions of people does the Prime Minister reckon will end up in fuel poverty?

[The Prime Minister]

We are taking action to help people on the lowest incomes through universal credit, and we are also supplying £400 through the energy bills support scheme.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mrs Theresa May (Maidenhead) (Con)]

I refer the House to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests.

I congratulate my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister on acting so swiftly to bring forward a package of support for people with their energy bills. There is no doubt, as every Member of this House knows, that that is a matter of real concern for people in my constituency and every other constituency, who have been worried about how they will heat their homes, and businesses that have been worried about how they can continue to operate.

I also welcome the fact that my right hon. Friend has coupled action on energy bills with action on energy security. The vicious further invasion of Ukraine by Russia has indeed shown the necessity of our having our own energy security, although it makes sense anyway. We have made important progress on that over recent years; I refer, of course, to the investment in Hinkley Point C, and I again welcome the commitment that my right hon. Friend and the Government have made to continuing that support for nuclear energy. As I pointed out in my intervention—

[Alan Brown]

Will the right hon. Lady give way?

[Mrs May]

Just wait a second—or perhaps more than one second. As I pointed out in my intervention on the right hon. Leader of the Opposition, and as was emphasised by the excellent intervention by my right hon. Friend the Member for Forest of Dean (Mr Harper), in 13 years of Government, whatever the then leader of the Labour party might have said, they did not build any new nuclear capability.

[Alan Brown]

Hinkley Point C will be at least four years late, possibly five. It is nearly 50% over budget and EDF has an eye-watering 35-year contract for a strike rate at £92.50 per MW, compared with roughly £40 per MW for just 15 years in onshore and offshore wind. The right hon. Lady should have scrapped Hinkley Point C when she had the chance, should she not?

[Mrs May]

It is high time that Scottish nationalists came up with some practical solutions to these issues, rather than rejecting everything the Government suggests.