Martin Docherty-Hughes
Main Page: Martin Docherty-Hughes (Scottish National Party - West Dunbartonshire)Energy Network Charges
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Ian Blackford
I thank the hon. Gentleman for his comments, and I accept what he says to a degree: there are differences in gas transmission charges in other parts of the UK that are not fair. What is at the heart of the matter is that there should be fairness and a universal market. Why should people in Scotland pay more for their electricity than people in London, and why should people in London pay higher prices for gas? It is not right. We live in a unitary state; the transmission charges should be the same throughout the country. Focusing specifically on gas, my constituents in the main do not have access to a gas network. We are discriminated against because we are not on the mains.
Let me return to the issue of fuel poverty and heating costs. A recent report by Highlands and Islands Enterprise said that because of heating costs and other factors:
“The budgets that households need to achieve a minimum acceptable living standard in remote rural Scotland are typically 10-40 per cent higher than elsewhere in the UK.”
The highlands and islands of Scotland experience the harshest climatic conditions in the UK and record levels of fuel poverty. There is far greater area-wide dependence on the use of electricity for heating as well as lighting, but the standard unit price charged is 2p per kWh more than many other parts of the UK and 6p more than various economy tariffs that are on offer. Two pence might not sound like much, but it is a price premium of 15%. That is what the UK Government have done to consumers in Scotland. Let us hear no more about the Scottish Government and their responsibilities, because the responsibility for this lies fairly, squarely and solely in the hands of the Minister. She could do something about it this afternoon, if she had the guts.
That is the price set by the UK Government to live in the highlands and islands. On top of that, there is far greater reliance in off-gas areas on domestic heating oil and solid fuel, which pushes up household heating costs further still. As a result, average domestic energy bills in off-gas areas are around £1,000 more per annum than the £1,369 UK average—that is £1,000 more in the highlands and islands.
Figures from Lochalsh and Skye energy advice service in my constituency suggest that average annual heating bills in Skye and Lochalsh are £2,218. It is little wonder that there are so many people in my constituency in fuel poverty. For those whose primary fuel for heating is heating oil, the annual bill is as high as £2,519. To cap it all, customers on prepayment electricity meters—often the least well-off—not only have to pay additional standing charges, but discover that their notional right to change to a cheaper electricity supplier has become impractical.
The Government must accept that having 14 regional markets in the UK, with consumers in the highlands paying that 2p premium, is detrimental to the interests of the people in the highlands and islands. We must have a universal UK market.
Martin Docherty-Hughes (West Dunbartonshire) (SNP)
Does my hon. Friend agree that the United Kingdom Government’s policy is strangely based on a horizontal line drawn through London? The Indian Queens power station in Cornwall has been subsidised to the tune of £5.80 per unit of electricity generating capacity, while until its closure this March Scotland’s Longannet power station charged £17.50 per unit of electricity generating capacity. That is a £23.95 difference per unit of electricity capacity—
Mrs Anne Main (in the Chair)
Order. May I ask that interventions are brief? There is plenty of opportunity for Members to speak if they wish. The intervention is becoming a speech.
Martin Docherty-Hughes
I was just about to bring my intervention to a very firm conclusion, Mrs Main. Does my hon. Friend agree that the price discrimination is about not just consumers, but Scotland’s utilities as well?
Ian Blackford
My hon. Friend makes a valuable point. We know that producers in Scotland have been discriminated against and the comparison between Longannet and Cornwall provides a clear explanation of that.