Energy Bill [Lords]

Debate between Albert Owen and John Baron

Wednesday 14th September 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Baron]

I thank my hon. Friend for those questions. I hope that both of them will be addressed by the research undertaken if the group deemed it necessary.

[Albert Owen (Ynys Môn) (Lab)]

I apologise for coming in and out of the debate because, like many other hon. Members, I have had to deal with other issues. Does the hon. Gentleman envisage his amendment covering people who are off-grid who are not protected by Ofgem and have difficult suppliers? Indeed, their supplies can be cut off at short notice. We are dealing with people who are connected to both gas and electricity mains, but more than 4 million households are not on the grid. Those people can be highly vulnerable and experience the greatest fuel poverty.

[Mr Baron]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for making that point. I hope that there will be no discrimination in how the information is presented. It is as simple as that. Bills go out to everyone in the land, and the information would be pertinent on those bills. Again, the research would ensure that we reached all sectors of our communities.

--- Later in debate ---

[Albert Owen]

It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Hexham (Guy Opperman). I welcome him back to the House. He is in good campaigning mode on fuel poverty and off-grid fuels in peripheral areas of the United Kingdom. I support new clause 1 and the other Opposition new clauses and amendments, but I shall limit my remarks to new clause 19, tabled by the hon. Member for Basildon and Billericay (Mr Baron). He highlighted in his opening remarks how important energy issues are to households and how the price hike of recent months and the trend that is forming are hurting every household in the United Kingdom. That is something that we need to address.

Good measures have been taken by previous Governments and, indeed, this Government with social tariffs, but the market simply does not work for many people. The price hikes are unsustainable, hurting and causing fuel poverty across the country. I welcome new clause 19 when it talks about clarity and simplifying bills, so that people have ready information.

I am glad that the Minister of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change, the hon. Member for Bexhill and Battle (Gregory Barker) is still on the Front Bench. He is on record as saying that he was so confused by the information available when he tried to switch supplier that he just gave up. I am in the same league as him. Energy companies deliberately give so much information to their potential consumers and customers that they do not bother.

I am a member of the Select Committee on Energy and Climate Change. We have held a number of inquiries and a mini-inquiry when price rises were announced just before the recess. We took evidence from three of the big six companies. There has been a review and there will be further reviews of energy pricing and tariffs and how the companies present their bills. It was interesting that 40% of those who decide to switch supplier are no better off when they do so, and many of them do so under duress; they switch just to get rid of cold-callers. So it is important that we have such a clause as well as other legislation and regulations that allow individuals to have clear and concise bills, so that they can make clear and concise choices and, we hope, reduce their energy prices, thereby reducing fuel poverty.

We will extend the retail market inquiry being undertaken by the Department of Energy and Climate Change to find out more from experts, including consumer groups, which have been helpful. I join hon. Members in putting on record my appreciation of the work done by consumer groups, such as Which?, Consumer Focus and Citizens Advice, in helping to frame proper protection guidelines for energy consumers.

The confusion needs to be addressed, and new clause 19 would go some way to doing so. When I intervened on the hon. Member for Basildon and Billericay to ask whether he would expect the measure to be extended to people off-grid and not on the mains, he said that he would. Of course, such an extension would be difficult because, as has been said in the previous contribution, the off-grid is not a regulated market. I am not sure—I am willing to take an intervention—how he envisages that independent suppliers would do what would be required of the big six, with dual tariffs and so on. Obviously, people without gas supplies cannot get the dual tariffs or other reductions that many people have.

[Mr Baron]

I think I said that subsection (c) of new clause 19 calls for research to choose the best message and consider how to communicate it. I envisage that we could at the very least consider that issue, without making any promises, when subsection (c) was triggered.

[Albert Owen]

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for the spirit in which he made his intervention. However, I think that that would be difficult. For some time, I have suggested—the Bill may not be exactly the right place to deal with this, but the electricity market reform White Paper is looking at it—that the regulator should look after people who are off-grid so that they have the same protection and rights as others. As has been said on numerous occasions, people in hard-to-reach areas on the periphery have the greatest need and are in the greatest fuel poverty. They are often off the mains, so they need equal if not better protection than people with access to mains gas and electricity.