Energy Bills

Hywel Williams Excerpts

Monday 2nd December 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Davey]

The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right. One of the first acts of this Government was to confirm the trebling of cold weather payments, so that people who were on low incomes had the money when they needed it. Under the triple lock, we have seen some of the biggest ever increases in the basic state pension, which has been greatly welcomed by pensioners up and down the country. By contrast, when Labour was in power, it oversaw an increase in the state pension in one year of just 75p.

[Hywel Williams (Arfon) (PC)]

How will these decisions help people in rural areas who depend on off-grid fuels?

[Mr Davey]

One of the things we have done is to look at the rural sub-obligation, which is a fourth component of the ECO, to ensure that it is working more effectively for people in rural areas, and we will be providing further details later.