Offshore Wind Contracts

Debate between Graham Stuart and Jonathan Edwards

Tuesday 12th September 2023 Commons Chamber

[Graham Stuart]

We are now running these auctions every year, and every year, we will be seeking to get the generation that we require at the lowest possible cost to the consumer. I make no apology for doing that. The fact that we have the most successful system, not only in Europe, but globally, is something that should be applauded and recognised.

[Jonathan Edwards (Carmarthen East and Dinefwr) (Ind)]

The Windsor report last month provides a sobering analysis about the scale of new electricity transmission infrastructure required to serve increased renewable generation and consumer demand in a very short space of time. However, as the report finds, there is considerable resistance locally to pylon development, as we are finding out in my constituency. Competence for such development is with the Welsh Government, but will the Minister pull together a working group of Ministers from across the UK and experts to consider the Windsor report, and in particular the advantages of cable ploughing technology, which would underground those cables at a comparable cost to overhead pylons without the visual damage?

[Graham Stuart]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his constructive and effective question. He is absolutely right to highlight the challenges of making sure that we have the right transmission and connection infrastructure to facilitate offshore wind. We have to do that in a way that minimises negative impacts on communities, that rewards them for hosting it, and that looks at new technologies and innovations, just as we do in other areas, in order to facilitate that effective connection with minimal negative impact on communities that host.

Prepayment Meters: Ofgem Decision

Debate between Graham Stuart and Jonathan Edwards

Monday 6th February 2023 Commons Chamber

[Graham Stuart]

I thank the hon. Lady for her question, and I am happy to confirm the compensation. If prepayment meters were made cheaper, we would have everybody seeking a prepayment meter and there would be nobody left to subsidise the vulnerable, and most of the poorest people do not have a prepayment meter. That question is entirely aligned with typical economic policy from the Labour party, but I do not think it contributes usefully to the debate.

However, the hon. Lady is right to highlight the importance of smart meters, and we want to see an acceleration of that programme. Smart meters provide a much better service and are cheaper to run, and I hope that as part of our plans for April 2024 onwards, when the Government support ends, we will have a system that encourages the installation of more smart meters and is much fairer to vulnerable users.

[Jonathan Edwards (Carmarthen East and Dinefwr) (Ind)]

Analysis by Citizens Advice Cymru indicates that around a third of prepayment users in Wales have been disconnected at some stage during the past year. Furthermore, there has been a threefold increase in the number of consumers being switched to prepayment meters. Do those stats alone not indicate that there is a real issue with the way in which energy companies use prepayment meters?

[Graham Stuart]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his question. The cost of energy has gone up, and despite extraordinary interventions by the Government, families are none the less finding it harder as a function of the Ukraine war and of global energy prices. That is why this Government have gone so fast in moving ourselves to cheaper renewable energy and away from the—what was it?—just 7% of energy that came from renewables when the right hon. Member for Doncaster North left office. Now that figure is well over 40%. We are going to move to a cleaner, greener and cheaper system that will be better for consumers in Wales.

Energy Bills: Self-disconnection

Debate between Graham Stuart and Jonathan Edwards

Wednesday 25th January 2023 Commons Chamber

[Graham Stuart]

I share the hon. Lady’s frustration. Obviously we would have liked it to get to them sooner, but I have laid out the reasons why it has not. If their electricity is supplied by a commercial supplier, the energy bill relief scheme has been directly reducing their bills through that supplier. We have put in place legislation to require those Government interventions to be passed on to the end recipient.

[Jonathan Edwards (Carmarthen East and Dinefwr) (Ind)]

The Minister mentioned in his initial reply the energy price guarantee, which has, of course, been extended until March 2024 for gas customers. There has been no further announcement, however, for those who use alternative fuels—oil, liquefied petroleum gas or wood pellets—to heat their homes. Can he give the House assurances that he will put pressure on the Treasury to make an announcement about next winter for households that use alternative fuels?

[Graham Stuart]

I can assure the hon. Gentleman that we will look carefully at the cost pressures across different markets, as we did when we came up with the alternative fuel payment, which was originally £100 before we doubled it to £200. I know that that is making a difference in Northern Ireland, and it will make a difference in rural areas around the UK.

Energy Prices Bill

Debate between Graham Stuart and Jonathan Edwards

Committee stage
Monday 17th October 2022 Commons Chamber

[The Minister for Climate (Graham Stuart)]

We are facing a global energy crisis, which has been exacerbated by Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine. This Bill puts support to help people, businesses, charities and the public sector across the UK with their energy bills on a secure legislative footing. It is a vital step in delivering the necessary package of assistance for the whole of the UK. We are putting the Bill through in an expedited way, and I thank His Majesty’s Opposition and other parties for their constructive engagement with us ahead of today. It is important that I put on record what the Bill will do, but I will seek to be brief because a number of Members are keen to speak to their amendments.

Clause1, together with clauses 2 to 8, provides for the establishment in legislation of the energy price guarantee schemes in Great Britain and Northern Ireland for electricity and gas. The EPG represents significant and bold action that will help to protect families from the spiralling cost of energy. This clause provides for the establishment of the EPG schemes and for them to be amended and revoked. For example, the schemes could be amended to change the eligible tariffs or the amount of financial support provided. The GB scheme has been operational from 1 October and delivered through contracts between the Secretary of State and energy suppliers. The Bill will put the scheme on a more secure statutory footing. The House will be aware that the Chancellor’s statement intends to refine the scheme after six months.

Clauses 9 to 12 will introduce a scheme that enables the Government to reduce the charges for electricity and gas supplied by licensed electricity suppliers to eligible non-domestic customers in Great Britain and Northern Ireland. This scheme represents significant and bold action to protect all eligible non-domestic customers, including businesses, charities and the public sector, such as hospitals and schools, from excessively high energy bills over the winter period. Without this intervention, the wider negative effects of this economic pressure would be severe and would materialise very quickly.

[Jonathan Edwards]

What advice would the Minister give to manufacturing companies in my constituency that have order books that extend past the six-month period, which the Bill supports, on pricing their products, given that they will have no idea what the cost of production will be following the increase in energy prices?

[Graham Stuart]

The hon. Gentleman’s question goes to the heart of the matter, which is that, if it were not for this intervention, those businesses would have been facing very high costs. We are committed to a review after three months, which will look at those who are least able to alter their energy use and come forward with proposals to help them in due course. That is why this is so important, but because of the costs and the impact, it needs to be time limited.

Clauses 13 to 15 will introduce powers for the Secretary of State to allow the Government to take steps, including the giving of financial assistance, to respond to the energy crisis, and to designate other bodies to take action in support of such steps. The power to give financial support is a time-limited power, at three years and six months. This is essential for the delivery of the various energy price support schemes and the administrative tying-up of them at the end part.

Clauses 16 to 18 allow the Government to break the link between high gas prices and cheap low-carbon electricity. These measures will allow the Government to take decisive action, through subsequent regulations, for a payment administrator to obtain excessive revenues from low-carbon electricity generators. This temporary measure will help more fairly to reflect the cheap costs of low-carbon generation. Clause 18, which extends the contracts for difference scheme to existing low-carbon electricity generators, will grant such generators longer-term revenue certainty.

Energy Costs in Wales

Debate between Graham Stuart and Jonathan Edwards

Tuesday 11th October 2022 Westminster Hall

[The Minister for Climate (Graham Stuart)]

It is a great pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Betts. I congratulate the hon. Member for Cardiff North (Anna McMorrin) on securing the debate, although I share with my right hon. Friend the Member for Vale of Glamorgan (Alun Cairns) some disappointment at the tone that she and most Labour Members took. That does not reflect the seriousness of the debate, and by way of contrast I would point not only to my right hon. Friend’s typically thoughtful speech but to that of the hon. Member for Ceredigion (Ben Lake), who made his points perfectly clearly but constructively, as we wrestle with this unprecedented global rise in prices.

It was good to hear the hon. Member for Southampton, Test (Dr Whitehead)—this was not reflected by the more rabid Back-Bench contributions—recognising the scale and generosity of the intervention, which is the most generous in Europe. This Government have acted decisively to help families and the poorest in particular. A failure to acknowledge those basic facts suggests a lack, I would say, of moral seriousness in dealing with this issue, which is of great import and is having a great impact on families now. No one is well served by political game-playing when we are dealing with something so severe and serious.

The Government understand the scale of the challenge and are taking action to help support households and businesses facing these record energy prices. This includes those in all four of our nations. Wales, alongside the rest of the UK, is feeling the pain of this crisis, which has been driven by the illegal invasion of Ukraine and Putin holding gas supplies hostage, in addition to the global pressures of the recovery from the pandemic—a point that was set out by the hon. Member for Southampton, Test, who is a learned Gentleman in this area of energy policy.

The announcements made by the Prime Minister on 8 September and 21 September 2022 demonstrated the Government’s commitment to protecting UK households and businesses through the energy price guarantee and the energy bill relief scheme. Under the plans, households, businesses and public sector organisations across the country will be protected from significant rises in energy bills, thanks to the new Government support that took effect from the beginning of October.

Without Government action, average household energy bills under the energy price cap had been due to rise to around £3,500 in October, a rise of 80% on current bills. Next year, it was predicted they would increase to as high as £6,500 per family. Those are truly chilling numbers. From this month, the Government’s energy price guarantee will limit the price households pay per unit of gas and electricity they use. It means that a typical household in Great Britain will pay on average £2,500 a year. Those with lower energy bills will pay considerably less, because it is about the number of units that people use. An average family will save between £1,000 and perhaps as much as £4,000 a year because of this unprecedented, unparalleled intervention by the Government to look after the people of this country and help them through this challenge.

The intervention has had a significant wider impact. It is interesting to note today that the International Monetary Fund has now conceded that the mini Budget, of which this was the centrepiece, will boost economic growth. [Interruption.] The hon. Member for Cardiff North, who only wants facts that support her political viewpoint, may be disturbed to learn that according to the IMF in 2022 the UK is predicted now to have the highest economic growth in the G7. This comes at a time of record employment as well. This Government put the people first. One of the saddest things about Labour Governments over the years is that they always end with higher unemployment than at the beginning. I am sure they wish the best, but they never seem to be able to deliver it.

In addition, households will see the first instalment of the £400 energy bill support scheme in their October electricity bill. Families are seeing it in their bills already in some cases. In Great Britain, the discount will automatically be applied monthly in six instalments between October 2022 and March 2023. For the 8 million most vulnerable households across the country, that will form part of a £1,200 package of targeted support to help with the cost of living.

[Jonathan Edwards]

The Minister mentioned the IMF report. Did the same report not say that, actually, inflation in the UK will be among the highest in Europe? There is perhaps only one country—Slovakia, I think—with a higher inflation rate. People will be hit far harder here.

[Graham Stuart]

The growth plan and the Government’s intervention will have a significant impact on reducing inflation, protecting households, mortgages and the like. Households in Northern Ireland will also receive support through the energy price guarantee from November, with support for October bills backdated so that they see the same benefit overall.

Like many in the Chamber, I represent a rural constituency with many people off grid. Those who live in an area of the UK that is not served by the gas grid—we have had a lot of conversation about that—and use alternative fuels, such as heating oil, to heat their homes will receive a £100 payment to support them with their energy bills. We are working at pace to work out how best to pay that money to those people. On 8 September, on the Floor of the House, the Prime Minister committed to supporting park homes. Residents will receive support equivalent to the EBSS and the EPG—apologies for the alphabet soup. More details on that will follow soon. It is important to note that households that use alternative fuels will get the £400 energy bills support scheme payment and the electricity component of the energy price guarantee as well as the £100 for alternative fuels.

[Jonathan Edwards]

Will the Minister give way?

[Graham Stuart]

With respect to the hon. Gentleman, I am going to press on. The Government’s package of interventions makes up the biggest proportion of the fiscal package set out in the growth plan.

Non-domestic energy consumers, including businesses, charities and public sector organisations, have also been experiencing significant increases in energy costs, with reports of increases of more than 500%. Those consumers will also be protected through the Government’s energy bill relief scheme from October, over the next six months. That support is equivalent to the energy price guarantee put in place for households, and similarly discounts the unit prices of gas and electricity, meaning that non-domestic energy consumers will pay wholesale energy costs well below half of the expected prices this winter. That will provide much-needed relief and certainty to non-domestic energy users who were facing significant energy costs, and it will enable them to plan ahead.