Mark Tami
Main Page: Mark Tami (Labour - Alyn and Deeside)(11 years, 9 months ago)
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Chris Evans
If I am ever lucky enough to be involved in writing the Labour party manifesto, I will take that on board.
The point I want to make on energy companies is that energy bills are complicated. There are 100 different tariffs for energy bills and the most basic argument—I have said it before, both here and in the House—is that we do not have luxury energy. People cannot have electricity or gas coming faster to them, like they can with the internet. Someone can go into Currys and say, “I want a luxury LCD or LED television”, and pay the price for whatever they want, but energy is energy; there is no luxury system. My hon. Friend the Member for Llanelli (Nia Griffith) talked about energy companies saying, “You can go on the internet and start switching.” My problem with that is that the vast majority of my constituents are elderly and do not have internet access. They do not know how to use it, so they are not going to go around looking for different prices.
I do not expect the Minister to come up with radical plans for reforming the energy market, even though we need to have that debate. We are approaching a tipping point where rising energy prices, and the need for energy security, will be a way of life. There is no magic bullet to end fuel poverty.
Mark Tami (Alyn and Deeside) (Lab)
Does my hon. Friend share my concern about companies allowing people on very limited incomes to run up bills of £3,000 or even more? I am sure he has had constituents come to see him about that, as I have. Those companies are now demanding that money, without any reference to income level.
Chris Evans
I entirely agree. The hon. Member for Montgomeryshire (Glyn Davies) shouted earlier “Mention Margaret Thatcher”, and I will mention her. When she privatised the energy companies, I bet she did not expect that she would remove one energy company to get just six. She would not have thought that we would be talking about a market that has moved from a monopoly to an oligopoly. I am sure she would be ashamed of that. That would not have been her intention. The problem is that there is no competition in the market.