Energy Policy and Living Standards

Debate between Robert Halfon and Mark Reckless

Wednesday 10th December 2014 Westminster Hall

[Robert Halfon (Harlow) (Con)]

Thank you, Dr McCrea; I will speak for three minutes or so. I am very grateful to the hon. Member for Clacton (Douglas Carswell) for giving me permission to make a speech, and I congratulate him on securing this important debate. I will focus on different areas, but I do think that the Government have done good things—in particular, providing a rebate to every domestic electricity customer and reducing bills by £130 for 2 million of the poorest households through the warm home discount. And of course the hon. Gentleman will know about the huge fuel duty freeze that the Government have pledged to maintain across the Parliament, so that the price of fuel is 20p lower in tax terms.

As I said, I will concentrate on a number of areas. The first is the difference in the cost of energy depending on which payment method a customer uses. I have worked with the hon. Member for Ynys Môn (Albert Owen) on this issue. Earlier this year, I conducted a cross-party campaign, with the support of more than 100 MPs, against the practice by energy companies of charging customers extortionate amounts for not paying by direct debit. My right hon. Friend the Prime Minister ordered an investigation into that, but all that Ofgem has said to me is that although there were some anomalies, such as the £390 extra that Spark Energy customers were paying, those cases were exceptional. However, Department of Energy and Climate Change figures show that the average person who does not pay by direct debit pays £114 more each year. That is just not good enough.

One elderly lady in my constituency of Harlow, who always paid on time via the post office, received a letter saying that she would have to start paying an extra £63 a year if she did not start paying by direct debit. That is unacceptable. Charges such as that are excessive and harm the most vulnerable in our society, particularly the 2 million people who do not have proper banking facilities, which makes payment by direct debit almost impossible. I hope that my right hon. Friend the Minister will clarify what the Government are trying to do on that.

Secondly, there is a problem, which has been raised, regarding prepayment meters. The cost of using those is often significantly higher than of using any other method. Traditionally, that was justifiable: companies had to pay people to go and empty the meters of coins. But there are now prepayment cards. Those who use prepayment meters are charged extra even though they are the least able to afford it. That needs to be looked at urgently.

Thirdly, there are other ways in which energy bills are increased, often through no fault of the consumer. The example has been mentioned of the 4 million households who are off the gas grid and will never be able to get the best deals as they cannot get a dual-fuel discount. It would be helpful if standard criteria could be introduced across suppliers to allow families with children clearer guidance as to whether they will qualify for the warm home discount.

Finally, I believe that the only way in which the situation can be improved is not by imposing an energy price freeze, which will only hike prices up in the long term, but by scrapping the existing regulator and creating an energy version of Which?, a consumer regulator that stands up for the customers, not the energy companies, and that has real teeth. As pointed out in The Sun newspaper today and as mentioned by the hon. Gentleman, The Sun is running a campaign for fuel companies to cut their prices following a significant fall in the international price of oil. I have previously handed a petition to the Office of Fair Trading with FairFuelUK calling for an inquiry into the rocket and feather effect, but there has never been a full inquiry.

In conclusion, stopping the premium on non-payment by direct debit, action on additional and hidden costs and turning Ofgem into a genuine consumer body would make a huge difference to residents of Harlow, and to energy bills and the cost of living for millions of people across the country.

[Mark Reckless (Rochester and Strood) (UKIP)]

rose—

University Technical Colleges

Debate between Robert Halfon and Mark Reckless

Wednesday 2nd November 2011 Commons Chamber

[Robert Halfon (Harlow) (Con)]

I am incredibly grateful for this debate. I spoke about apprenticeships and vocational training in my maiden speech, and have campaigned regularly since joining the House last year for apprenticeships and apprenticeship rights. I have now worked for many months behind the scenes with Harlow college, Anglia Ruskin university and employers in my constituency to apply for a university technical school in Harlow, which I will talk more about later.

Although universal technology colleges have not yet received the same media attention as free schools and the huge expansion of the academy programme, they are an equally profound reform of our school system. They are hugely popular, and something that we should think about in their own right.

I want to make three points. First, for decades we allowed vocational education to decline. Secondly, for growth, skills and jobs, UTCs represent the reform that we need. Thirdly, the results are positive, and we should support a massive roll-out of UTCs around the United Kingdom. When the right hon. Member for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath (Mr Brown) called the general election in 2010, there were nearly 1 million young people unemployed. The same is broadly true today. However, youth unemployment is not a recent crisis. Figures from the Department for Work and Pensions show that it has grown steadily worse and worse over the past 10 years. In Essex, in particular, nearly 4,000 young people are not in employment, education or training. My constituency is one of the worst affected towns. We have allowed our skills base and vocational education to decline.

In the past 10 years in Austria and Germany, one in four businesses offered apprenticeships to young people, but in England that figure was just one in 10.

[Mark Reckless (Rochester and Strood) (Con)]

I am listening with great sympathy to what my hon. Friend says about his constituency, because in my area of Medway we have had a similar problem with the closure of the dockyard 25 years ago. We lost an enormous employer that had trained hundreds and thousands of apprentices, so for us, UTCs would provide a new opportunity to develop in that area. With the Royal School of Military Engineering and MidKent college, there is a real partnership approach. I look forward to learning—

[Mr Speaker]

Order. The hon. Gentleman is developing a most interesting argument, but I want to hear Mr Halfon.