Asked by: Robert Halfon (Conservative - Harlow)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether consumers are able to opt out of receiving the £200 upfront discount on energy bills.
Answered by Greg Hands
Domestic energy customers in Great Britain will receive a £200 reduction on their bills this Autumn. The Government will provide funding to all suppliers for them to pass on to their domestic energy customers from October 2022. The Department will consult on the detail of the scheme in the spring
Asked by: Robert Halfon (Conservative - Harlow)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he is taking to financially assist those people living in listed and older properties to insulate their homes to be energy efficient.
Answered by Greg Hands
The Government’s Heat and Buildings Strategy set out a comprehensive package of measures to retrofit the nation’s buildings. Alongside this the Government announced more than £3.9 billion of new funding for decarbonising heat and buildings, bringing the total commitment in this Parliament to £6.6billion.
As part of this, the Government has a number of grant schemes to support people on low incomes to improve the energy efficiency of their homes. These schemes include the Local Authority Delivery Scheme, the Home Upgrade Grant and the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund. In addition, the Government has committed to extending the Energy Company Obligation from 2022 to 2026, boosting its value from £640 million to £1 billion a year. This will help an extra 305,000 households with green measures such as insulation.
Measures delivered through Government schemes must meet independent installation standards; these standards ensure that measures are installed correctly in different types of homes.
Asked by: Robert Halfon (Conservative - Harlow)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he is taking to ensure motorists are charged prices for petrol and diesel which reflect the wholesale oil price.
Answered by Greg Hands
The Department’s analysis shows that retail prices of petroleum products such as petrol and diesel are primarily driven by the underlying price in the global market of crude oil and by exchange rates. Departmental analysis shows that changes to the price of crude oil feed through to retail prices over the course of 6-7 weeks. The prices are also influenced by a range of other supply and demand factors, including refining capacity, stock levels, logistics and distribution costs and seasonal demand variations.
Asked by: Robert Halfon (Conservative - Harlow)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of establishing a pumpwatch body to monitor petrol and diesel prices to ensure that the prices motorists pay reflect changes in the wholesale oil price.
Answered by Greg Hands
The Government believes that it is essential for consumers to get a fair deal when they visit the pumps. The Department actively monitors fuel prices, and its analysis shows that both rises and falls in the price of crude oil reach the pumps within seven weeks. An open and competitive market is the best way to keep prices low; a new regulator is not necessary. If people have evidence of anti-competitive practices in the fuel supply sector, this should be passed onto the Competition Markets Authority.
Asked by: Robert Halfon (Conservative - Harlow)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he is taking to ensure that falling wholesale oil prices are reflected at filling stations.
Answered by Greg Hands
BEIS publishes weekly national average pump prices: www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/oil-and-petroleum-products-weekly-statistics. The Department’s analysis shows that both rises and falls in crude oil prices are passed through to consumers over the course of 6-7 weeks. No evidence has been found to suggest that, for given changes in crude oil prices, retail prices rise faster than they fall.
Competitive markets ensure that consumers get a fair deal and that road fuel prices stay as low as possible. This framework delivers pre-tax prices in the UK which are below the European average.
Asked by: Robert Halfon (Conservative - Harlow)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what discussions he has had with the Competition and Markets Authority on the relationship between petrol and diesel prices at filling stations and wholesale oil prices.
Answered by Greg Hands
The Department monitors petrol and diesel prices at retail and wholesale levels and conducts periodic assessments of the relationship between these costs. If there is any evidence of market failure at a national level this will be passed to the Competition and Markets Authority. The Competition Markets Authority is not a price regulator and applicable competition legislation does not provide any general powers to regulate either prices or profits. The price or pricing structure that a company or group adopts for a particular product or service is a matter for its own commercial judgement.
Asked by: Robert Halfon (Conservative - Harlow)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
What steps he will take to support small businesses in Harlow.
Answered by Paul Scully
Businesses in Harlow will continue to benefit from a range of government programmes, including start up loans and support delivered through the Essex Growth Hub. Additionally, the £23.7m Harlow Town Deal will encourage new business investment into the town.
Asked by: Robert Halfon (Conservative - Harlow)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he is taking to support pubs in Harlow.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Department regularly meets with representatives from across the hospitality sector to discuss how it can recover and build back from the pandemic. We have provided an unprecedented support package of £352 billion, including grants, loans, business rates relief, VAT cuts and the job retention scheme, which hospitality businesses have access to. We have published a new Hospitality Strategy: Reopening, Recovery, Resilience to ensure England’s pubs, bars, restaurants and other hospitality venues can thrive long-term.
My Rt. Hon. Friend Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer set out further steps to help the economy recover in the Autumn Budget. These included extending the Recovery Loan Scheme until June 2022, providing over £1 billion to ensure businesses can continue to access loans and other finance, and a 50% business rates discount for hospitality businesses for the year 2022-23. Pubs will directly benefit from draught beer and cider cuts by 5%, as well as simplifying alcohol duty and freezing duty rates on beer, cider, wine and spirits.
Asked by: Robert Halfon (Conservative - Harlow)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he is taking to ensure that (a) Harlow Council and (b) other local authorities allocate funding from the Additional Restriction Grant to local businesses (i) quickly and (ii) in line with the needs of those businesses.
Answered by Paul Scully
Throughout the pandemic, BEIS officials have worked closely with Local Authorities to ensure that grants are delivered as quickly as possible, while safeguarding public funds. As the range of grants available has increased, officials have continued regular briefings with all 314 Local Authorities. Ministers have also held regular conversations with leaders and chief executives.
We have published data that shows as of 17 January, £143 million has been paid out by Local Authorities to businesses in England through the Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG) scheme, and that figure increases every day. My Rt. Hon. Friend Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer has announced a £425 million top-up to the ARG, to be allocated to Local Authorities which have spent their existing allocations by 30 June 2021.
Asked by: Robert Halfon (Conservative - Harlow)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how much funding has been allocated to Harlow Council to provide Additional Restriction Grants to local businesses.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG) is a discretionary scheme aimed at supporting businesses, including those that have not been mandated to close but have had their trade adversely affected by the nationalised restrictions. At the Budget on 3rd March, my Rt. Hon. Friend Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer announced an additional £425 million will be made available via the ARG, meaning that more than £2 billion has been made available to Local Authorities since November 2020.
As at 18 December, 2020, Harlow Council had been allocated £1,741,340 in ARG funding. All data on Government allocations and Local Authority payments of the ARG is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-grant-funding-local-authority-payments-to-small-and-medium-businesses.