Oral Answers to Questions

Charlie Dewhirst Excerpts

Tuesday 24th March 2026 Commons Chamber

[James Wild (North West Norfolk) (Con)]

14. What steps his Department is taking to help reduce household energy bills.

[Charlie Dewhirst (Bridlington and The Wolds) (Con)]

18. What steps his Department is taking to help reduce household energy bills.

[Wendy Morton (Aldridge-Brownhills) (Con)]

21. What steps his Department is taking to help reduce household energy bills.

--- Later in debate ---

[Ed Miliband]

The hon. Gentleman asks an important question. The reason why we decided to put the money into the crisis and resilience fund three weeks after this crisis began was to get the money out the door quickly. During the previous crisis, that took 200 days. He asks an important question about local authorities’ provision of support and also what happens if they do not have the funds. That is something on which we are working intensively, and we are keeping closely in touch with local authorities. We want the help to go to those who need it and we want to work with local authorities to make sure that that happens.

[Charlie Dewhirst]

The latest wind auction has signed us up to sky-high prices for the next 20 years, but Ministers are claiming that their internal analysis proves that this will bring down bills. Will the Secretary of State publish those calculations in full so that we can see exactly how prices will be lowered?

[Ed Miliband]

We published the levelised cost analysis, which showed that new renewables were much cheaper to build and operate. As gas prices are soaring across the world and hitting us here at home, the idea that the Conservative party still opposes our renewables auction, which gives us clean home-grown power on which we can rely, is absolutely nonsensical.