Non-domestic Energy Support

Kerry McCarthy Excerpts

Monday 9th January 2023 Commons Chamber

[James Cartlidge]

I pay tribute to my hon. Friend for being an absolute champion for his constituency. I know that he had a question on hospitals earlier and now he is championing his pubs. We all know how important pubs are to all of our constituencies. I will make two points.

First, in response to my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for South Swindon (Sir Robert Buckland) I referred to the letter that the Chancellor is sending today to Ofgem, urging it to update him as a matter of urgency on its review of the non-commercial market. Hopefully, that will look at some of the factors around how contracts operate and, indeed, at whether there are abuses and what can be done about it.

Secondly, one of the reasons we are maintaining universal support is precisely because there will be examples, such as the one my hon. Friend raised, of those who came to the end of a deal and fixed when prices were high, and so will not have benefited, even though prices are falling. This support is there to prevent that sharp cliff edge. It is about getting the balance right.

[Kerry McCarthy (Bristol East) (Lab)]

The Christmas period should be a boom time for hospitality companies; sadly, in Bristol we saw quite a number go under, and energy bills were a huge reason for that. The Newtown Park Brewing Co. was forced to stop production—a 500% increase in its energy bill quote was the final straw. It was not helped by the fact that, when it tried to speak to its energy company about what support was available, its energy company did not know. It said, “We would tell you if we did know, but we have no idea what we can offer you.” Will the Minister ensure that, with packages going forward, everybody is in the know, the details are communicated and there is enforcement so that people get the help that they are entitled to?

[James Cartlidge]

The hon. Lady asks a pertinent question. I will make a point about hospitality this Christmas. Of course, a particular factor facing hospitality was that people could not get around on our railways to enjoy hospitality at Christmas as they normally would. We all know the reasons for that. It is a great disappointment to me that that industrial action has threatened many otherwise viable businesses up and down the country. However, her question was perfectly fair. Payments should be automatic. I obviously do not know the exact circumstances of, I think, the pub—

[Kerry McCarthy]

Brewery.

[James Cartlidge]

Sorry, the brewery that she was talking about. Assuming that it is still going, it would benefit from the scheme; I hope that it can. On whether it would benefit from the universal scheme or the intensive scheme, it would likely be the universal one. If colleagues want to find out whether a particular sector is in the intensive scheme, that information should now be available on gov.uk.