Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Greg Clark and John Lamont

Tuesday 12th June 2018 Commons Chamber

[Antoinette Sandbach (Eddisbury) (Con)]

5. What steps he is taking to support vulnerable consumers with their energy bills.

[John Lamont (Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk) (Con)]

20. What steps he is taking to tackle rising energy prices.

[The Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (Greg Clark)]

The Government are committed to helping energy consumers. We have brought forward the price cap Bill, and more than 2 million low-income households receive £140 a year through the warm home discount.

--- Later in debate ---

[Greg Clark]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. One of the missions that the Prime Minister announced as part of our grand challenges in the industrial strategy is to reduce by 50% the energy consumption of homes built in the future. That has an important impact not only on our greenhouse gas emissions, but on the bills that people face.

[John Lamont]

With recent rises in fuel costs, many motorists in the Scottish borders feel like they have been taken for a ride. What steps are the Government taking to try to reduce the impact of higher taxation on fuel, and what analysis has the Department carried out on the allegations of rocket and feather pricing on petrol and diesel sales at the pump?

[Greg Clark]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for the question. It is a very important market. Obviously, recent oil price rises have had an impact at the petrol pumps. It is important that prices are competitive and not, as he implies, subject to rising quickly and then taking a long time to decline. The Office of Fair Trading last looked at this in 2013, but I expect its successor, the Competition and Markets Authority, under Andrew Tyrie, a noted consumer champion, to keep this under close review.