Cost of Living

Christopher Pincher Excerpts

Wednesday 27th November 2013 Commons Chamber

[Chris Leslie]

Absolutely. In last week’s Opposition day debate, my hon. Friend the Member for Ashfield (Gloria De Piero) correctly highlighted not only the impact of the cost of living crisis on households up and down the country but how it is particularly hitting women.

[Christopher Pincher (Tamworth) (Con)]

On the subject of giving and taking, is the hon. Gentleman aware that in 20-odd years of Labour control of Staffordshire county council, Labour hiked council tax time after time, whereas this year the Conservative-controlled county council has cut the tax? Does that not show that Tories give money back and Labour takes it away?

[Chris Leslie]

The trouble for the hon. Gentleman is that an awful lot of Conservative councils have metaphorically stuck two fingers up to the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government and, indeed, the Chancellor by deciding to increase council tax because the Government’s approach to local government finance has squeezed services. Even Conservative councils and authorities are finding themselves in a position where they are raising council tax.

--- Later in debate ---

[Christopher Pincher (Tamworth) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Inverclyde (Mr McKenzie) and to speak in this debate. It gives me an opportunity to relate to the House the good news happening in Tamworth, which is not some leafy suburb but a no-nonsense, hard-working, gritty, midlands town. In Tamworth in the past 12 months, unemployment has fallen by 31%, youth unemployment by 35%, and long-term unemployment by nearly 40%.

Last month I held a jobs fair at which there were more jobs than jobseekers. There were some 400 jobs, including apprenticeships at Jaguar Land Rover and Spline Gauges, 50 jobs at Marston’s brewery, and jobs at Toys R Us. That demonstrates in a small but significant way how we have turned a corner and are creating real, sustainable jobs and growth for our constituents. It is our job to do that, and a story that Labour Members do not like to tell, just as they do not like to be reminded of their last miserable years in government, when in my town jobs were lost across the board. One could walk down the Glascote road and see repossession notices in window after window, as banks foreclosed on people’s homes. People were not just losing their jobs under Labour, they were losing their homes as well. We will not listen to lectures from Opposition Members when we remember the grisly legacy of Labour’s years, and we will not let them forget it either.

[Alec Shelbrooke]

Does my hon. Friend agree that in order to receive a lecture, someone actually has to have some information given to them?

[Christopher Pincher]

My hon. Friend is, as ever, apposite in his point, and we look forward to hearing Labour’s plan—plan A, plan B, plan Z? One day perhaps we will hear what it might be.

We have heard something from the Leader of the Opposition, whose latest stunt is to announce an energy price freeze. We should beware geeks bearing gifts, because that announcement is pretty hollow for three reasons. First, if a price freeze is imposed, companies will simply hike their prices before the freeze and afterwards, and people will be paying artificially high energy prices. That is what Professor Dieter Helm says, as well as Adam Scorer from Consumer Focus. Even the hon. Member for Southampton, Test (Dr Whitehead) has raised that concern. He is a Labour member of the Energy and Climate Change Committee and says that Labour’s plans for an energy freeze are somewhat sketchy.

The second reason a freeze will not work is that rather than break up the big six oligopoly, it will entrench it. Stephen Fitzpatrick of Ovo and the First Utility company—the company of choice for the Leader of the Opposition—say that a price freeze will make it more difficult for them to break into the market and operate, and that it will entrench the position of the big six, rather than break it up. The third reason the freeze will not work is that it will jeopardise £125 billion-worth of investment that we must make in short order in our energy infrastructure—£25 billion of that in the pipes and pylons that keep our lights switched on.

[Angie Bray (Ealing Central and Acton) (Con)]

Is there not a fourth problem? It would be a brave Government indeed who called an end to the so-called 20-month freeze precisely because, as they would know, prices would be likely to increase. Therefore, the chances are that prices would be frozen at that level.

[Christopher Pincher]

My hon. Friend makes a valid point. I suspect that, were we, heaven forfend, to have a Labour Government, they would show a great deal of pusillanimity in the face of the energy companies—the big six that they created. We need to ensure that we get that infrastructure funding flowing from private enterprise. Unless we get that money from the private sector, the poor old taxpayer must foot the bill.

We do not need an artificial, high price freeze in future; we need price cuts now. That is what will help our constituents, and that is what they want. That is what the Energy Bill will deliver. We need to make it easier for people to switch: 24-hour switching could save people up to £200 on their energy bills. We need to get rid of the array of tariffs—under Labour, there were more than 400—and put people on the lowest tariff available. That could save people £158. If we also roll back those green levies and do not impose the £125 carbon tax that Labour tried to impose through the Energy Bill in the other place just two weeks ago, that will save our constituents money. That is real help for real people now, not the conjuring trick that the Leader of the Opposition, like some street magician, wants to undertake.

We will remember at all times and in all circumstances that the Labour Government, like a bunch of boy racers behind the political wheel, wrapped our economy around a lamppost. Never, ever will we let it happen again.