Energy Prices

Lord Sikka Excerpts

Wednesday 26th March 2025 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Lord Sikka]

To ask His Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to control energy prices.

[The Minister of State, Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (Lord Hunt of Kings Heath) (Lab)]

My Lords, the Government believe that the best way to protect bill payers and to mitigate the energy price spikes that we saw in 2022 is through our mission to deliver clean power by 2030. Under the default tariff price cut, Ofgem has capped the profits of energy suppliers in the retail market. In addition, the Government are reviewing Ofgem’s role to ensure that it is a strong consumer champion.

[Lord Sikka (Lab)]

My Lords, I thank the Minister for the reply. We need a glimpse of reality here: between 2020 and 2024, the UK’s 20 biggest energy companies made an operating profit of £483.4 billion—yes, noble Lords heard that figure correctly—which is a major cause of social problems. Steel, shipbuilding and engineering industries are struggling, 6.1 million households are in fuel poverty and 110,000 pensioners a year are dying in fuel poverty. The Government have three non-mutually exclusive policy options: price controls, public ownership, and worker-elected and consumer-elected directors on company boards. What proposals would the Minister like to offer for ending profiteering in the energy industry?

[Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Lab)]

My Lords, I am very grateful to my noble friend for his support. The issue of prices is of course serious for both business and domestic customers. That is why we have the warm home discount and the support given to businesses that use energy intensively. Clearly, this is a continuing issue that will be solved only if we can wean ourselves off the international gas markets, which we are going to do by moving towards clean power. I just say to my noble friend that Ofgem does in fact cap the profits of energy suppliers in the retail market; they are capped at 2.4%.