Oral Answers to Questions

Pat Glass Excerpts

Thursday 16th December 2010 Commons Chamber

[Chris Huhne]

The hon. Lady knows that the Ofgem review is a very real review into the margins being charged by suppliers and that Ofgem has considerable powers. If its review finds a real concern about the lack of competition in the sector—I believe that has been a widespread concern—we will move to ensure that behaviour is, in fact, pro-competitive in this area. One of the key objectives of Government policy is to bring more competition into this field, as that is the ultimate guarantee that consumers will get the best possible deal.

[Pat Glass (North West Durham) (Lab)]

4. When he expects to publish the results of his consultation on smart metering.

[The Minister of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change (Charles Hendry)]

There has been an excellent response to the consultation, with more than 300 replies having been received from a wide range of stakeholders, which have broadly welcomed the key proposals in the prospectus. The Government expect to respond formally to the consultation early in the new year.

[Pat Glass]

The Minister will be aware that smart meters, in themselves, are simply pieces of kit; on their own, they will not change behaviour or reduce energy consumption. What are the Government and the energy companies doing to educate consumers, because that is how we will reduce energy consumption?

[Charles Hendry]

The hon. Lady is right that the consumer experience is absolutely at the heart of the success of the smart meter roll-out. We are working very closely with Citizens Advice, Consumer Focus and other groups that represent consumers, including those representing older consumers, because the experience of consumers and making sure that they use smart meters most effectively to their advantage is at the core of what we are trying to achieve.

--- Later in debate ---

[Chris Huhne]

The coalition agreement anticipated that we might extend green deal finance to microgeneration. We are working on the assumption that green deal finance will be available for insulation measures, because we have secured outstanding incentives for microgeneration through the feed-in tariffs, as was confirmed in the comprehensive spending review. Green deal providers will offer microgeneration proposals precisely because the incentives are so good.

[Pat Glass (North West Durham) (Lab)]

T3. Like the hon. Member for Suffolk Coastal (Dr Coffey), who is no longer in her place, many of my constituents who live in rural areas rely on heating oil, the price of which has more than doubled in the past two months. Companies are now refusing to deliver less than 1,000 litres, which is having a massive impact on families and on schools, colleges and hospitals. What will the Minister do now to deal with that exploitation?

[The Minister of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change (Charles Hendry)]

I would be very grateful if the hon. Lady could give me more details, because we have also heard that some companies are asking people to take lower amounts so that the delivery lorries can get to more homes and more people before Christmas. That is obviously the sensible approach. I would be very concerned if companies were artificially raising the amounts that they expected people to buy at this time.