Graham Stringer
Main Page: Graham Stringer (Labour - Blackley and Middleton South)
Karl MᶜCartney (Lincoln) (Con)
13. What steps he is taking to reduce domestic energy bills.
Graham Stringer (Blackley and Broughton) (Lab)
17. What steps he is taking to reduce domestic energy bills.
The Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change (Mr Edward Davey)
The Government are committed to reducing domestic energy bills, and have put energy efficiency at the heart of their energy policy. The green deal will drive the take-up of energy efficiency measures in homes, helping to reduce energy bills. In addition, the roll-out of smart meters will further reduce energy use. Vulnerable customers will also benefit from the warm home discount, which is worth £1.1 billion over four years.
Mr Davey
I am grateful to my hon. Friend for that question. There are two things I would point him to. We are helping small suppliers to compete by increasing the customer threshold for participation in schemes such as CERT and CESP—the carbon emissions reduction target and the community energy saving programme—and the warm home discount scheme. Ofgem is currently consulting on proposals for a mandatory auction in the wholesale electricity market to improve liquidity, and has recently completed a consultation on tariff simplification. All these measures will, we believe, help small suppliers in my hon. Friend’s constituency and elsewhere.
Graham Stringer
Will not the biggest impact on reducing domestic energy bills be achieved by bringing shale gas online as quickly as possible?
Mr Davey
I do not think so. We had a seminar at No. 10 recently, which the Prime Minister participated in, along with myself and the Business Secretary. We heard from experts in the shale gas industry who had been working in America and looking at the major opportunities in places such as Ukraine and China. They were clear that it would take some time for shale gas to be exploited in the UK. They were also clear that we needed strong regulation to proceed and that the shale gas reserves in this country are not quite as large as some people have been speculating.