Energy Market Reform

Neil Parish Excerpts

Wednesday 24th October 2012 Commons Chamber

[Neil Parish (Tiverton and Honiton) (Con)]

Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker, for allowing me to speak in the debate. I endorse many of the comments of my hon. Friend the Member for North Swindon (Justin Tomlinson) about the tariffs, the need for competition and the need for people to understand those tariffs. The only way the market will work is by ensuring that there is proper competition and that people are able to switch easily from one company to another, without those companies having tied the consumer in.

The policies of successive Governments, both the Labour Government and this coalition Government, are driving up the price of energy. There must be competition between the companies to keep the overall level down, but in the end consumers will pay more for their gas and electricity. Our green policies are good, but they cost money and they will cost the consumer money. We must be realistic about how we deal with that. I have every sympathy for the fuel poor but the addition of a green tariff is bound to push up energy prices. We need greater competition and we must look after the poorest in society.

I will now make some specific points. Those who can access pipeline gas to heat their homes, however much the price might have gone up, are actually—dare I say it?—the most fortunate, because those who have oil heating are paying even more. Not only are they paying £1,400 for 2,000 litres of oil, which it does not take the average household long to get through, but they might live in a house that is listed or has traditional windows, which they cannot replace with double glazing, or solid walls, which are very difficult to insulate.

I congratulate the Minister on the money he has put forward to help insulate such properties in rural areas, but I do not believe it is enough. As I said at the start of my remarks, the whole idea is that the green deal is essential because energy prices will continue to rise, but the trouble is that many of my constituents cannot necessarily get the green deal because the figures do not work with the cost of insulating solid walls, for example. Ultimately, those consumers in my constituency and across the country will end up paying more for the insulation than they will save on their energy bills, and that is something we need to deal with.

We talk about competition in the gas and electricity markets, but where is the competition in the heating oil industry? There is virtually none. It is almost a cartel—I can say that in the House—so there is no competition. Two years ago we saw prices almost double when there was snow on the ground. Some of the worst snow in the United Kingdom was in Northern Ireland, but the prices there did not rise as much as they did on most of the rest of the mainland for the simple reason that there is greater competition there because more people have oil-type heating.

The previous Minister referred the oil companies to the Office of Fair Trading. I want that to be pursued, because consumers who cannot get gas must get either liquefied petroleum gas or oil, and LPG is usually dearer than oil and covers the same spectrum of prices. That is absolutely key. I want to see exactly what we will do to help those consumers in my constituency and many other rural constituencies. It is not just rural constituencies; there are old cottages in many town centres across the country and they have to be dealt with. I want to see real progress in that regard.

My final points are on energy security and what we will do in future. It is no good simply saying that we have shale gas; let us actually try to exploit it. Look at what has happened to the gas market in America—I am not suggesting for one moment that we have the same amounts of shale gas—where the price has been reduced by about two thirds. We also have a lot of coal, believe it or not. It is not fashionable to burn coal, but clean coal could be quite effective, and gasification could be another great use of that resource.

Meanwhile, will we rely on gas from the Russians? I spent 10 years in the European Parliament and know that various European countries, especially Poland, do not like the idea of the Russians being able to turn off the gas and hold Europe to ransom. We have the whole mix of energy, but we must face up to the fact that—it is no good the Labour party saying otherwise, because they pursued the same type of policy, which is to drive up energy prices—if we are going to drive up prices, we have to make sure that the poorest in society can get help and that those who are not on mains grid gas have particular help because of the high cost of their bills.

--- Later in debate ---

[The Minister of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change (Mr John Hayes)]

A long, long time ago, cavemen discovered that flint made fire, but the opening speech by the right hon. Member for Don Valley (Caroline Flint) barely raised a flicker, let alone a flame. I grant that there was a good deal of heat, and she certainly generated plenty of friction, but there was not a gleam of illumination as to why, in power, Labour did so little to deliver the kind of market reform that the hon. Member for Liverpool, Wavertree (Luciana Berger) just claimed was so necessary. Is it any wonder that the right hon. Lady finds herself in the dark shadows of opposition, not the bright light of power?

I say that not in anger but in sorrow—sorrow not only because I know that the right hon. Lady is a great deal more than window dressing, and because she made some strong points about market entry and creating a more plural marketplace to create downward pressure on prices, but because, more profoundly, she knows, and I know she knows, that the debate on energy policy deserves better than a half-hearted advocacy of a half-baked motion, and because she also knows that the country’s future should be characterised by a cross-party approach and a bound commitment to plotting a path to a future where energy supply is secure; a future where we build an energy infrastructure that is fit for purpose; a future where the vulnerable are protected from unaffordable energy bills; and a future where the needs of the many, not the interests of the few, drive an energy policy that is for the people, not, as was sadly the case under the previous Government, coloured by the demands of the powerful.

Yes, absolutely that means market reform in order to foster clarity and sow certainty so that businesses can make their business plans and invest in the way I described. Yes, it does mean a generation mix sufficient to guarantee resilience and bring security, as my hon. Friend the Member for Tiverton and Honiton (Neil Parish) and the hon. Member for Wansbeck (Ian Lavery) said. It means, too, moving to a market that is more responsive and competitive, as my hon. Friend the Member for Hexham (Guy Opperman) advocated. It also means more nuclear, by the way, as Members who are as great fans of nuclear power as I am will be relieved to hear. And it means communities benefiting, guiding and owning the energy infrastructure, not having infrastructure, such as onshore wind turbines, scattered across our precious land like an atavistic echo of dark satanic mills.

I am reluctant to be too hard on the Opposition, however, because I never seek contumely, as you know, Madam Deputy Speaker, and because I know that they are handicapped by two things, among many. First, they know that tariffs are an important way of driving down the price people pay for heat and light and that the Prime Minister’s intervention and the subsequent discussions have opened up that debate in a new and helpful way. Secondly, they also know that in the 13 years for which they were in control there was none of the landmark legislation necessary to secure our energy future—they dithered, they delayed, they deferred.

Who was the ditherer in chief who presided over this spectacular inaction? It was none other than Disraeli’s new best mate, the Leader of the Opposition. Just a couple of years ago, as Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, he told the House that the purpose of his own energy Bill was

“to strengthen Ofgem’s powers in a number of respects and to make it a more proactive regulator”.—[Official Report, 7 January 2010; Vol. 503, c. 254.]

Yet now, when asked what they would do by a hard-pressed pensioner living in fuel poverty, by a hard-pressed farmer facing a cold winter or by a hard-pressed family anticipating Christmas with fear because of energy bills, Labour’s answer is clear as crystal: reform Ofgem and yet again rearrange the regulatory framework to invent a new quango. If they were running Byzantium, they would want it to be more bureaucratic.

In contrast, we will take direct action with a Bill published in weeks, not months, to help people get lower tariffs, using all in our power to address the issues of fuel poverty and bills that are too high for the vulnerable groups that have been supported by so many speakers in the debate. We are also providing immediate assistance to those who need help with their energy bills through our four-year warm home discount. The previous Government’s voluntary scheme meant that vulnerable people were offered different tariffs simply because they happened to have different energy suppliers, but our mandatory scheme helped 600,000 vulnerable pensioners last year alone through a £120 rebate on their energy bills.

The hon. Member for Liverpool, Wavertree (Luciana Berger) said that she would rather have Labour’s record than ours. Let me tell her that the number of fuel-poor households rose year on year from 2004 to 2009 from 2 million to 5.5 million. That is Labour’s sorry record in defence of the poor.

[Neil Parish]

DCC plc owned between 40% and 50% of the heating oil market and also trade as BoilerJuice and GB Oils. Will the Minister ask his officials to investigate the dominance in the heating oil market of one particular company?

[Mr Hayes]

I have to say that in my hon. Friend’s constituency there are really only two principal heating oil suppliers. He is right that that does not create necessary competitive pressure. I shall certainly ask my officials to consider such issues. Indeed, my hon. Friend made a powerful and persuasive speech on the subject during the debate.

We are providing support through the winter fuel payments and cold weather payments, which this Government have increased from £8.50 to £24. I accept that, as the hon. Member for Glasgow North West (John Robertson) and the right hon. Member for Birkenhead (Mr Field) have said, we need to target the support in the most effective way. Through a new obligation from 2013 we will require energy companies to deliver support for heating and insulation for the most vulnerable. This is about demand. As the hon. Member for Burnley (Gordon Birtwistle) said, we have too often debated energy only in terms of production and insufficiently in terms of consumption.

How curious it is that, bedazzled by the glitz and glamour of wealth, the Labour party pandered to corporate power over those 13 years. Keir Hardie must have looked down, wringing his hands in horror. They pander and ponder, bourgeois left minds honed to wander.

As an admirer of Joseph Chamberlain, only in my dreams did I believe that one day I would be the first Tory Minister in decades to advocate tariff reform at this Dispatch Box. Although these are different tariffs and different reform, I am delighted to do so today. I repeat that we will use all in our power to ensure through the Energy Bill that people get the best deal.

That is the difference between my party and the Labour party. We act; they meander, pander and ponder. They want to change the regulations; we want to change the policies. They want a different Ofgem; we want to make a difference to people’s bills.