Oral Answers to Questions

Robert Halfon Excerpts

Thursday 1st November 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Davey]

The hon. Gentleman seems to suggest that there is a lack of transparency in the way in which energy costs are delivered. I have to say that I disagree with him. There are huge amounts of information about the different costs of green energy. He will know that the cost of renewables for bills is tiny and that the cost of energy efficiency schemes, such as the carbon emissions reduction target and the energy company obligation, is significantly greater. The real costs involved in and the real reason energy bills are going up are the rising price of wholesale gas on global markets and the need to invest in our distribution networks that need to be replaced. Those are the real drivers behind higher gas and electricity bills, and people who suggest otherwise should look at the facts.

[Robert Halfon (Harlow) (Con)]

T9. The Minister of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change, my hon. Friend the Member for South Holland and The Deepings (Mr Hayes), has been instrumental in forcing inquiries into the uncompetitiveness of the oil companies in keeping prices high at the pump. Will he also urge the Treasury to stop the 3p planned fuel duty rise in January, which will cost motorists an extra £60 a year?

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

Needless to say, I will not make any commitments above my pay grade or outside my remit, but my hon. Friend has been a doughty campaigner and as a result of that campaign will know that I have taken a series of measures along the lines that he has proposed, in my Department and elsewhere, to ensure that we can meet the objectives that he sets out. I am a Blue Collar Conservative by origin, by inclination and, as you can see, Mr Speaker, by sartorial choice.