Oral Answers to Questions

Anna Dixon Excerpts

Tuesday 27th January 2026 Commons Chamber

[Sally Jameson (Doncaster Central) (Lab/Co-op)]

11. What fiscal steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to help reduce energy bills.

[Anna Dixon (Shipley) (Lab)]

21. What fiscal steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to help reduce energy bills.

[The Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury (Torsten Bell)]

Energy bills are too high, and Britain is too dependent on the rollercoaster of gas prices. That is why the autumn Budget reduced the cost of levies on energy bills to save households £150 on average from April this year.

[Torsten Bell]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right: people need to see inflation come down, and that is what the Office for Budget Responsibility and the Bank of England forecast to happen. As she said, from April our plans for energy bills will save households £150 on average, which is something she has campaigned for over the past 18 months. I am pleased energy companies have confirmed that those savings will be passed on to those with fixed tariffs. She asks that we go further, and I should add that we have extended the £150 warm home discount to a further 2.7 million of the poorest households.

[Anna Dixon]

I warmly welcome the Chancellor’s announcement in the Budget on scrapping the energy company obligation scheme, which will bring down energy bills by £150 on average and support some 5,000 households living in fuel poverty in my constituency of Shipley. The disastrous Tory-designed scheme, ECO4, cost £1 billion per year, yet 98% of the external wall cavity installations were faulty. What further action are the Minister and Chancellor taking to reduce energy bills and ensure that energy companies put people over profit?

[Torsten Bell]

My hon. Friend is entirely right. The Conservatives did not just leave Britain dependent on the rollercoaster of gas prices; they left families paying almost £2 billion on their bills for their failed energy efficiency ECO scheme. The Chair of the Public Accounts Committee described the scheme’s failings as the “worst” he had ever seen. That fuel poverty scheme cost 97% of those in fuel poverty more than it saved them, and it damaged thousands of homes. We are scrapping the ECO scheme, and cutting families’ bills.