Neil Parish
Main Page: Neil Parish (Conservative - Tiverton and Honiton)(13 years, 11 months ago)
Commons ChamberOn the social tariff, I congratulate the right hon. Member for Doncaster North (Edward Miliband) on the powers introduced in the Energy Act 2010. We can use that important set of powers to try to alleviate these problems. The Department’s approach, most fundamentally, is to try to deal with the causes of the problem, not merely to use sticking plaster on the symptoms. The key thing is to identify those in fuel poverty and ensure that they have the energy-efficiency measures in place to make sure that they do not get into fuel poverty in future. With social price support we can help for one year, but if we get the energy-efficiency measures right, we help for ever.
On the Severn barrage, the Bristol channel has the second highest rise and fall of tide in the world. Are the Government also examining tidal pools?
Order. We are talking about help for vulnerable people in meeting their energy bills, so we have to stick to that.