Meg Hillier
Main Page: Meg Hillier (Labour (Co-op) - Hackney South and Shoreditch)(13 years, 3 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text
Chris Huhne
The hon. Gentleman will be aware that we have announced the Warm Homes discount, which will ensure, through legislation, that the particularly high fuel bills suffered by those in fuel poverty are tackled, which is a considerable advance on the voluntary arrangements that we have had until now. I come back to the point I made in response to my hon. Friend the Member for Crawley (Henry Smith), which is that we must tackle the roots of the problem. The energy bills of people on low incomes can vary by a factor of six. If they are lucky enough to be in decent home standard social housing, they will have low energy bills, but if they are in private rented housing they may have very high energy bills. That is what we have to tackle and that is what we will do with the green deal.
Meg Hillier (Hackney South and Shoreditch) (Lab/Co-op)
I am delighted about the investigation into domestic fuel prices, which my hon. Friend the Member for North West Durham (Pat Glass) and the official Opposition have been calling for, and glad that the Government have finally acted. Rising oil prices, as my hon. Friend the Member for Streatham (Mr Umunna) and others have indicated, are only part of the problem. The Government’s record on standing up for consumers is, frankly, very poor. In recent months, we have seen price rises of between 2% and more than 9% from all the main energy suppliers, yet Ministers sit back and refuse to intervene. We have seen Consumer Focus abolished, with insouciance from the Secretary of State on what that means for consumers. At the same time, we have seen mis-billing and doorstep selling investigations showing that not all is well with the big six energy companies. The Government’s response is that we must leave them alone or they will not invest. Does he understand that that investment is customers’ money? Can he tell the House that he is entirely confident that customers are getting a fair deal?
Chris Huhne
The hon. Lady will know that it is precisely because we are not confident that customers are getting a fair deal that we have, for example, asked the OFT to look at the heating oil market and why procedures are under way to investigate doorstep selling. In all markets we must be ever-vigilant, which is precisely what the Government have been. We have put the consumer’s interests first.
Meg Hillier (Hackney South and Shoreditch) (Lab/Co-op)
We heard from the Secretary of State about speeding the transition to the low-carbon economy, and his Minister has reiterated the Government’s commitment. If we were to measure the Secretary of State’s success by headlines, as I am sure he is often keen to do, then we, like him, would say “A good job done.” However, we judge on actions, not words, and we have seen nothing but confusion, dither and indecision. There is no detail on the renewable heat incentive, and change is afoot on feed-in tariffs and the green investment bank. Today we hear again that there will be discussions on the green investment bank, but when will the Minister decide on it, or is the Department simply being hobbled by the Treasury?
Gregory Barker
It really is a bit rich to have lessons on banking from Labour Members, who brought the British banking sector to the very brink of ruin and the country’s finances into utter disaster. Their handling of the City was utterly catastrophic. We will bring forward, in good time, a robust new institution that will be a key part of the financial architecture of green growth, and we will take no lectures on any of this from Labour.
Meg Hillier
Well, all sound and fury signifying, so far, nothing. Let us be clear: there is talk about the new green investment bank, but no new money, and no detail, and different dates for when we will hear about it. Why? Because the announcement was made by the Secretary of State at the time of the comprehensive spending review without a deal having been pinned down with the Treasury. We are still waiting. When will we have the detail on the green investment bank and when will businesses get the certainty about investment that they need for green growth?
Gregory Barker
I tell you what—it will not take us 13 years to come up with a plan for a green investment bank. It was this Chancellor of the Exchequer who announced plans for a green investment bank, this coalition that is working on plans for it and this coalition that will bring it forward. The hon. Lady will just have to contain her excitement. She would do better to dwell on the Opposition’s abysmal record on green investment, instead of asking fatuous questions from the Dispatch Box.