Energy Prices Bill

Debate between Munira Wilson and Liz Saville Roberts

Committee stage
Monday 17th October 2022 Commons Chamber

[Liz Saville Roberts (Dwyfor Meirionnydd) (PC)]

I rise to speak to new clauses 6 and 7, which stand in my name.

Amid the chaos of the economic emergency unleashed by the Prime Minister’s discredited Budget, energy prices have once again increased for millions of households. While I welcome the fact that the measures in this Bill have temporarily limited the increase in energy bills, the reality is that the energy price guarantee fails to meet the scale of the crisis we face: £2,500 is still unaffordable. Indeed, the Welsh Government have estimated that energy bills of £1,971 could well push 45% of Welsh households into fuel poverty. The Chancellor has caused further uncertainty with his announcement that support in its current form will last for only six months. Many families will have budgeted on the understanding that the support would last for two years, and they will now be desperate for certainty about how they will pay for extortionate bills and rocketing mortgages.

Plaid Cymru has urged the UK Government to go further, and to slash average bills to the pre-April levels of £1,277. New clause 7 would require the UK Government to publish an assessment of the impact that such an action would have on the number of households living in fuel poverty, and the number of children living in both relative and absolute income poverty. I think it is a fair question to ask about how these measures affect the poorest families.

Fuel poverty increases the risks of developing respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, while poverty in childhood affects education and career prospects, and it can even cut short life expectancy. There are other costs, as we heard earlier, with tenement buildings in relation to the costs of energy, and people scrimping and saving as best they can. Energy companies should of course pay their fair share for this additional support through an expanded and backdated windfall tax on oil and gas companies, and scrapping the investment allowance.

If the Chancellor wants to reduce the cost of the energy support package, the answer is not to break promises made to millions of households, but—and on this surely we can all agree—to focus on reducing energy demand. The inefficiency of our housing stock means that households are wasting hundreds of pounds a year on energy that immediately escapes through draughty walls, windows and ceilings. New clause 6 would require the UK Government to work with the Welsh Government, the Scottish Government and the Northern Ireland Executive to assess the benefits of a housing decarbonisation scheme in terms of the impact it would have on energy bills, the number of households living in fuel poverty and climate targets.

Even before energy prices skyrocketed, the Welsh future generations commissioner estimated that £3.6 billion of investment from the UK Government could unlock a Welsh home insulation programme that would save Welsh households an average of £418 a year on their energy bills. This benefit extends beyond lower energy bills. National Energy Action has estimated that, due to the impact of cold homes on health, for every £1 spent on improving energy efficiency and retrofitting fuel-poor homes, the NHS saves 42p, and that the potential benefit across the UK of ensuring that nobody lives in a cold home amounts to more than £1.5 billion per year. This is using public money to real, direct effect in saving energy and in having a real effect on people and their lives.

We are about to enter a new phase of Conservative austerity, and those of us in this House who understand the deadly consequences of the last 12 years must push back against the pernicious narrative that this is the only way to ensure economic stability. Instead, we must make the case for the prudent investment that has economic and social benefits, and there is no better place to start than a street-by-street home insulation programme.

I am not seeking to divide the Committee, but I would very much appreciate a response from the Minister on our new clauses 6 and 7. I want to mention that, if I had time to do so, I would also speak in support of amendment 16 and new clauses 12, 10 and 9, which also include many important measures that we should be taking into account at this time.

[Munira Wilson (Twickenham) (LD)]

I rise to speak to new clause 4 and amendment 4, both in my name and that of my hon. Friend the Member for Richmond Park (Sarah Olney). These amendments seek to address the inequality of support offered to some 480,000 households across the UK that benefit from communal energy provision. This Government have repeatedly promised to provide equivalent support to those living in households on communal heat networks, yet this Bill plainly fails to realise that equivalence in legislation with other households that will be supported through the energy price guarantee.

Heat networks supply heat to buildings from a central source, avoiding the need for households and workplaces to have individual energy-intensive heating solutions, such as gas boilers. They are one of the most cost-effective ways of reducing carbon emissions from heating, and indeed they have been encouraged by the Government. Many who are on communal heat networks live in London, and there is a number of such blocks of flats in my constituency and the neighbouring constituency of Richmond Park. Residents in Wharf House in Teddington in my constituency are facing energy price rises of 560%, and it is not uncommon for those on communal heat networks to be facing price rises of over 500%. These people can be living in private housing, as is the case in my constituency, but particularly across London many affected by this issue live in social housing and in buildings that range from Victorian mansion flats through to very recent developments.

Many of my constituents and those of my hon. Friend the Member for Richmond Park (Sarah Olney) who have been in touch are very worried about their rising bills and what help they will receive. I presented a petition to Parliament, I have written letters to the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, and I have tabled parliamentary questions. At each turn, and indeed in the Prime Minister’s statement on the energy support package some weeks ago, reference has been made to support for those on communal heat networks, and we have repeatedly been told, including in the BEIS factsheet, that heat networks will receive support equivalent to both the energy price guarantee and the energy bills support scheme. Indeed, the Minister currently on the Front Bench replied to a written question from me last week promising that the Government want heat network consumers to receive support equivalent to that provided to mains gas and electricity consumers.

Yet in this Bill it transpires that thousands of households will receive support second hand through suppliers and only for six months. Until this morning we knew that other families on average would have their bills capped at about £2,500 for two years, whereas households connected to heat networks were going to face a cliff edge after six months. I appreciate that policy has changed today, but the lack of equivalence remains, which is why I was still keen to speak to these amendments.

As the Government seek to review their energy support scheme after six months, they need to address the lack of equivalent support for those living in buildings with communal heat networks. The Liberal Democrat amendments would ensure that every person who is part of a heat network received a cost reduction that is equivalent to that of those benefiting from the energy price guarantee, and for the same period of time. That would achieve equivalence, which the Government have proposed.

Those who live in buildings with communal heat networks should not be penalised for doing the environmentally responsible thing that the Government have urged them to do. I therefore urge the Minister to honour the Government’s promise and I hope that in his closing remarks he will address the issues that these amendments raise.