Oral Answers to Questions

Paul Holmes Excerpts

Tuesday 17th January 2023 Commons Chamber

[Theresa Villiers (Chipping Barnet) (Con)]

2. What steps he is taking to support households with energy bills.

[Paul Holmes (Eastleigh) (Con)]

6. What steps he is taking to support households with energy bills.

[James Grundy (Leigh) (Con)]

8. What steps he is taking to support households with energy bills.

--- Later in debate ---

[Grant Shapps]

My right hon. Friend makes an excellent point, and it is noticeable that gas prices are high, but the price of renewables is typically much lower. Indeed, for a whole load of days in a row more than half our electricity has been provided through renewables, in particular offshore wind. That decoupling is important, but it is also not straightforward, as my right hon. Friend will know. It is something that the Minister for Energy and Climate and I are actively working on.

[Paul Holmes]

Eastleigh has a diverse housing mix that includes pensioners, those living in park homes and lower-income families, who are all struggling to pay their energy bills. What steps is the Secretary of State taking to pass on any falls in wholesale energy prices to consumers, so that they pay less as prices come down?

[Grant Shapps]

My hon. Friend raises a good point. What concerns me is the idea that when wholesale prices go up we get a rocketing in domestic prices, but as wholesale prices fall again, as they have done, we get a sort of feathering down, very slowly. I am concerned about that and I have written to Ofgem asking it to look at the market. Energy companies are forward buying their energy by several months, but we need those changes to come through in reductions to households, and we will be pressing to make sure that happens.