Lord Teverson
Main Page: Lord Teverson (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Baroness Verma
My Lords, this Government do stand up for hard-working families, the grafters and the strivers. What we cannot do, of course, is tell big energy companies what prices they should set. Artificially reducing retail prices to levels below competitive levels would be unsustainable and discourage investment in new infrastructure. We need to make sure that energy companies are doing more by making them make their bills easier for consumers to understand and, where they can, by directing consumers to cheaper tariffs.
Lord Teverson
My Lords, between 2003 and 2011 the retail price index went up 30 per cent but the index relating to the energy price per household went up 120 per cent—four times more. Over that time, from 2003 to 2010, the number of households in poverty went up from 2 million to 5 million. Can the Minister explain how this Government are tackling that blemish on our society, inherited by us from the previous Government?
Baroness Verma
I thank my noble friend for affording me the opportunity to show our commitment in helping low-income and vulnerable households to keep their homes warm at an affordable cost. We have in place a strong package of measures to help the most vulnerable through the Warm Home discount scheme, which I have mentioned, which will help 2 million households receive support during 2012-13. This will include more than 1 million of the poorest pensioners, who will receive an automatic discount of £130 off their electricity bills by December this year.