Prepayment Meters

Liz Saville Roberts Excerpts

Monday 23rd January 2023 Commons Chamber

[Graham Stuart]

I agree with my hon. Friend and it is important to make sure that people do not find themselves caught in a cul-de-sac. He asked about the Government laying out the rationale for higher costs. I believe I have said this on two occasions, so I hope I have at least set out the rationale, whether or not people agree with it. The one that we inherited and that subsists today is that this is cost-reflective. Ofgem, the regulator, supervises this and ensures that no charges are imposed that do not reflect the additional costs of providing energy through that particular methodology. Whether we should change that is a separate matter, but I hope I have at least been clear in explaining the rationale that we inherited from the right hon. Member for Doncaster North (Edward Miliband) and others previously.

[Liz Saville Roberts (Dwyfor Meirionnydd) (PC)]

People living in north Wales are at the sharp end of the cost of living crisis. Last year, many of them paid the highest electricity prices in the UK, and the costs for those on prepayment meters was higher still. Recent figures from Citizens Advice show how precarious access to energy is for prepayment meter customers in Wales, with 32% being disconnected last year because they could not afford to top up. We have heard that the Minister will not ban the forced installation of prepayment meters, so will he give the Welsh Government the power to step in and put people before private energy profit?

[Graham Stuart]

I entirely reject the premise of the right hon. Lady’s question. We are not putting people behind the private energy company profits—quite the contrary; we are trying to ensure that we have a system that stops vulnerable people getting caught in debt, having bailiffs coming to the door and being further impoverished by a system that does not help them. That is what we are seeking to balance. As I have said, we are going to consider this in the round going forward, because the system and, most of all, people such as those she refers to are under a stress that has never been seen before.