Draft Warm Home Discount (Amendment) Regulations 2025

Debate between Lewis Cocking and Miatta Fahnbulleh

Monday 14th July 2025 General Committees

[Miatta Fahnbulleh]

I thank the hon. Member for his contribution to this debate. He is nothing but consistent, which is about the only upside that I can speak about. He and the Conservative party have some cheek trying to lecture the Government on energy bills being too high, given that they oversaw record energy bills and an anergy crisis. I will address his points and then talk about this important intervention that we are taking forward.

Clean power and our drive to sprint to clean power is not ideological. It is a recognition and a response to the fact that energy bills reached sky high prices because of our dependence on global fossil fuel markets. We saw that during the energy crisis that the Conservative party presided over. Families and businesses across the country have been paying the price of that. That party was happy with that reality, but it is not one that we are willing to confront.

[Lewis Cocking (Broxbourne) (Con)]

rose—

--- Later in debate ---

[Miatta Fahnbulleh]

We have had this conversation over and over again. What I would say is that we are very clear that we are on a rollercoaster, with fossil fuel prices driving energy bills up and down. We are absolutely committed to dealing with that. We are also absolutely committed to reducing energy bills, which went up and up under the last Government. We will not allow that to happen: we have made a commitment to reduce energy bills by £300 by the end of this Parliament and we are doing the job of making that happen.

I come back to the fact that we have to wean ourselves off fossil fuels. The proposition from the Conservative side, to the extent that it is a proposition, is completely wanting and unrealistic. Families and businesses across the country would be saddled with high prices that were a function of our being on this rollercoaster. We are not willing to contend with such a reality, so we are taking measures. The shadow Minister says that he wants to see more nuclear, but there was not a single expansion of nuclear under the last Government: 14 years absolutely wasted. We are doing the job of getting to clean power in order to reduce energy bills—

[Lewis Cocking]

rose—

Warm Home Discount

Debate between Lewis Cocking and Miatta Fahnbulleh

Tuesday 25th February 2025 Commons Chamber

[Miatta Fahnbulleh]

My hon. Friend is 100% right. This is the route by which we will deliver for people’s pockets and, critically, deliver the jobs that we need across the country and boost our economy. We are clear-sighted about what needs to be done. It is a shame that the Conservative party is so blinkered.

[Lewis Cocking (Broxbourne) (Con)]

We need to produce more energy at home from renewables and oil and gas, as we need a diverse energy mix in the UK. That will help us to deal with the volatile global energy markets. When will the Government change course and support the UK’s oil and gas industry, including the cluster based in north-east Scotland, and issue new oil and gas licences to help bring down bills for residents across the country and in my constituency?

[Miatta Fahnbulleh]

I direct the hon. Member to the clean power plan, and the analysis done on the way to deliver energy security. We are clear that this is the quickest and best route by which to do that. In the end, one thing guides what we do: the need to get lower bills for the long term. We believe that this is the way to do it. The rest of the system agrees with us, from the regulator through to NESO. Our job is to crack on and deliver that.