Oral Answers to Questions

Elsie Blundell Excerpts

Tuesday 15th July 2025 Commons Chamber

[Alex Brewer (North East Hampshire) (LD)]

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

[Mrs Elsie Blundell (Heywood and Middleton North) (Lab)]

22. What steps he is taking to help support low income families in the context of trends in the level of energy prices.

[Max Wilkinson (Cheltenham) (LD)]

23. What steps he is taking to help reduce household energy bills.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mrs Blundell]

My Heywood and Middleton North constituents live in a state of profound uncertainty as to how the unpredictability of global energy markets will affect their families. Does the Minister agree that if we want to protect those families from volatility, we must end our reliance on global fossil fuel markets, and introduce targeted interventions to bring bills down, particularly for those on the lowest incomes?

[Miatta Fahnbulleh]

My hon. Friend is right. It beggars belief that the Conservative party is so stuck in its ideological opposition to moving towards clean power. We are clear that we must break our dependence on global fossil fuel markets, which led to record energy bills during the energy crisis. We are making that sprint, but it is critical that we support the most vulnerable households while we make that transition, which is why I am so proud that this Government extended the warm home discount so that an extra 2.7 million households—one in five—will benefit this winter.

Nuclear Power: Investment

Elsie Blundell Excerpts

Tuesday 10th June 2025 Commons Chamber

[Ed Miliband]

The right hon. Gentleman raises an important issue; let me take this away. As we embark on this golden age for nuclear, we need to make sure that the supply chain really benefits. Perhaps he could furnish my Department with the details so that we can think about how such companies can benefit?

[Mrs Elsie Blundell (Heywood and Middleton North) (Lab)]

I welcome today’s announcement. I have been speaking to people from across my constituency—cleaners, hospitality workers and others—who desperately need the cost of bills to come down. How will the projects announced today, and the other steps the Government are taking to counter the impact of uncertainty in global energy markets, help to stop people in Heywood and Middleton North being out of pocket?

[Ed Miliband]

My hon. Friend raises an important point, which is that this is about planning for the long term to get off the rollercoaster of fossil fuels, which are insecure. We saw what happened when Russia invaded Ukraine. Let me give the House one fact: if the Sizewell C plant had been up and running at the time of that crisis, bill payers would have saved £4 billion in 2022-23 alone. That is the security that new nuclear can give us.