Great British Energy Bill

Debbie Abrahams Excerpts

Consideration of Lords message
Wednesday 14th May 2025 Commons Chamber

[Michael Shanks]

I thank the right hon. Gentleman. I was going to come to his substantive contribution shortly, but I will do so now. The first point he made in his speech is important, which is that there is a real danger with the piecemeal approach he mentioned. That is partly why I have resisted the idea that Great British Energy will solve all of these issues in isolation; it clearly is not going to do so. We think it has a really important role in leading the conversation and leading the effort, and certainly in demonstrating that by its own actions, but we have to look at these issues right across Government.

The meetings I have convened are a starting point in looking seriously at where the Modern Slavery Act falls short. We are committed to doing that, and it sounds as though there is consensus across the House about looking seriously at that. That is not only for my Department, and I want to be careful about overstepping, because to avoid the work being piecemeal, it needs to be done right across Government. However, the points the right hon. Gentleman makes specifically on tracking supply chains are very helpful, and I will take them away.

The hon. Member for South Cambridgeshire (Pippa Heylings) made a point about the International Labour Organisation’s principles. Great British Energy will consider the 11 indicators of forced labour, including abuse of working and living conditions, as part of its efforts. I do not think that this Bill is the right place to get into a conversation about defining slavery. We may need to look at that, and I am not against doing so, but this Bill is about creating Great British Energy, and we need to be careful to keep these things separate.

We are already a signatory to a number of conventions, which highlights the Government’s broad support for tackling forced and compulsory labour, and we will continue to take that forward. The Home Office has produced a modern slavery action plan, which sets out the first steps in its departmental responsibilities for tackling modern slavery at its root. The plan, which will be published shortly, confirms that the Government are considering legislative vehicles for strengthening section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act.

These are clearly important issues, and I do not for a second seek to say that the Lords amendment or Great British Energy itself will solve all of them, but I think this is an important step, and I welcome all the contributions made across the House.

[Debbie Abrahams (Oldham East and Saddleworth) (Lab)]

I basically want to thank the Minister. This has been quite a robust and rough journey, but he has listened to comments from across the House, analysed the arguments we have made and listened to the other place. I think this is now going to be a very strong Act that will help enormously to shift our global supply chains and get the transparency I think everybody in this House wants, so I thank him.

[Michael Shanks]

I thank my hon. Friend for that intervention, but more broadly, as I have said before, for her significant contribution in this space and for the way she has influenced me and others over the past few weeks on these important issues. I also thank others across the House, because it has been a real cross-party effort, and I think we are in the same place. We want to take this forward, and there is much more work to do. I want the message to be that, while this is progress, it is—as the right hon. Member for Chingford and Woodford Green (Sir Iain Duncan Smith) put it very well—the beginning, and certainly not the end, of further work.

Without wanting to tempt fate, this is the last opportunity to speak about the Bill in this place, so I close by thanking everyone who has played a role in getting it to this stage. In particular, I thank my noble Friend Lord Hunt in the other place. I thank all the Members from all parties in this place who contributed to the Bill Committee, and the witnesses who gave evidence. I also thank the parliamentary staff who play such an important role in shepherding Bills through this place and the House of Lords. I especially thank the fantastic team of officials in the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, who moved at incredible speed to develop the legislation, but always with good humour, which I have personally appreciated.

Great British Energy is at the heart of what the Government are setting out to achieve: delivering clean power, but delivering jobs and investment as we do it; and delivering energy security and climate leadership, owned by and for the people of this country, and headquartered in the energy capital of Europe, Aberdeen. With investments having already been made, including in community energy in Scotland today, which Members from Scotland might welcome, and investment in supply chains and much, much more, this is the big idea of our time. It will deliver on our energy objectives, but with the public owning a stake in their energy future. I am pleased that Parliament will—I hope, without tempting fate—back it today, so that it can receive Royal Assent and get on with doing what we need it to do.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debbie Abrahams Excerpts

Tuesday 18th March 2025 Commons Chamber

[Euan Stainbank (Falkirk) (Lab)]

1. What steps he is taking to introduce the warm homes plan.

[Debbie Abrahams (Oldham East and Saddleworth) (Lab)]

21. What steps he is taking to introduce the warm homes plan.

[The Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero (Ed Miliband)]

Our warm homes plan will upgrade up to 5 million homes with technologies such as heat pumps, solar panels and insulation, helping families to lower bills and improve their homes. Last week we allocated £1.8 billion to local authorities and social housing providers to help low-income households and social housing tenants. We will publish further plans following the spending review.

[Ed Miliband]

My hon. Friend raises a number of important issues. It is about having a tough regulator in Ofgem, it is about smart meters that work, and it is about every decision the Government take seeking to tackle fuel poverty. That is why I was incredibly pleased that we announced the extension of the warm homes discount to an extra 2.7 million families, with an extra £150 next winter to help families. That is what this Labour Government are all about.

[Debbie Abrahams]

I welcome the energy efficiency measures that my right hon. Friend mentions, which will really make a difference to many families in the future, but what can the Government and energy providers do to help families struggling to pay their energy bills today?

[Ed Miliband]

My hon. Friend speaks with great expertise about these issues. She will know that the Minister for Energy Consumers, my hon. Friend the Member for Peckham (Miatta Fahnbulleh), put in place with the energy companies £500 million this winter to help families struggling with their bills. We also want to see Ofgem proceed with the plan to relieve the debts that many families face, because the debt overhang from the cost of living crisis that we saw after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine still blights many families in our country. If we move forward on all those fronts, we can tackle these issues.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debbie Abrahams Excerpts

Tuesday 8th October 2024 Commons Chamber

[Sarah Jones]

I agree with the GMB in its warm congratulations for our announcements yesterday to deliver carbon capture and storage across the country. We are of course working closely with our trade union colleagues. It is interesting: in opposition, the Conservatives suddenly quote the unions, when they refused to even meet them in government. We work very closely with the GMB and all our trade unions to ensure that we have a just energy transition and that we are creating the jobs and skills of the future by becoming a clean energy superpower.

[Debbie Abrahams (Oldham East and Saddleworth) (Lab)]

6. What recent assessment he has made of the potential merits of introducing energy social tariffs.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero (Miatta Fahnbulleh)]

We know that people are worried about their energy bills going into the winter and that, for a growing number of people, energy is simply unaffordable. We are absolutely determined to take this affordability issue and tackle it head on. There are many different ideas about what a social tariff could look like, and it means different things to different people. We are clear that we will tackle the affordability question and look at the full range of options available to us. But our priority—my priority—this winter is to ensure that families struggling with bills have support through our warm home discount scheme, and to work with energy suppliers to provide support.

[Debbie Abrahams]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for her response. I absolutely recognise that energy prices over the last few years have escalated, putting particular pressure on households with low incomes and also those with high energy needs, such as disabled people and pensioners. I agree that the warm home discount scheme is valuable, but it is limited and I am concerned for people with high energy needs but on low incomes, who might fall foul of the system as it stands.

[Miatta Fahnbulleh]

We have been working flat out with energy suppliers to ensure that they are providing additional support to families who will struggle with bills this winter. In August, I met all the suppliers, and there was a shared commitment to do everything we can to support vulnerable households. We have been working with them, the industry body, Ofgem and Citizens Advice to ensure that there is a proper package of support in place this winter so that we can support families who we know are struggling with their bills.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debbie Abrahams Excerpts

Tuesday 16th January 2024 Commons Chamber

[Andrew Bowie]

It is incredibly encouraging to hear about what is happening at A&P Falmouth. As my hon. Friend knows, the floating offshore wind manufacturing investment scheme is providing up to £160 million to support investment in UK ports. However, while FLOWMIS is still live, I am afraid I cannot comment on individual applications.

[Debbie Abrahams (Oldham East and Saddleworth) (Lab)]

T5.   More than 15% of families in my constituency live in fuel poverty, with a median energy efficiency score of just 65. How much of the 2019 general election manifesto pledge to spend £9.2 billion on improving energy efficiency has gone on retrofitting existing properties and not on new builds?

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero (Amanda Solloway)]

I will have to write to the hon. Member with the figure, but the Government remain firmly committed to new builds as well as to retrofitting.

Energy Bill [Lords]

Debbie Abrahams Excerpts

2nd reading
Tuesday 9th May 2023 Commons Chamber

[Grant Shapps]

I very much share my right hon. Friend’s concerns. I was recently at the G7 in Japan, where we signed an agreement with other nuclear powers from the G7 on exactly this issue of energy security. Of course, we have Urenco—a third owned by the British Government—which is in many ways very advanced on the production, fabrication and other elements of uranium. It is part of the mix and we must ensure we are able to do that, so I thank him for his question.

[Debbie Abrahams (Oldham East and Saddleworth) (Lab)]

I am grateful to the Secretary of State for giving way. This goes back—I was standing up a few minutes ago—to the question from the hon. Member for Central Suffolk and North Ipswich (Dr Poulter) and it is on energy efficiency. I have 14,000 households in Oldham that are fuel poor. They have seen their gas bills double, their electricity is up nearly two thirds, and some of them have said to me, “Why are we going through this, and when can we have our houses made more efficient so we’re not having to spend so much on this?” Why could that not be funded by a windfall tax on energy producers, given that, for example, BP said last week that it is making £60 million a day in profits? [Interruption.]

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Rosie Winterton)]

Order. Just a little reminder that, if colleagues intervene on the Secretary of State, it is customary for them to stay until the end of his speech.