Oral Answers to Questions

Thérèse Coffey Excerpts

Thursday 20th October 2011 Commons Chamber

[Chris Huhne]

There is no question of anybody’s investment being undermined by any of our decisions, because this Government—in this respect, I think we are no different from previous Governments—are very committed to not having retrospection in legislation and legislative changes. However, we keep all our subsidies under review. I just told the hon. Member for Daventry (Chris Heaton-Harris) that we are cutting subsidies for onshore wind turbines by 10%, and that reflects what is going on in the real world. I recently visited a project run with the city council in Birmingham, where people were able to show me invoices from solar panel suppliers showing that they had managed to get a 33% reduction in the cost of solar panels in just one year. It is absolutely right that the Department goes on looking at the appropriate levels of subsidies to bring on these important technologies, and that is obviously what we will do.

[Dr Thérèse Coffey (Suffolk Coastal) (Con)]

2. What progress he is making on ensuring that off-grid households have access to affordable heating fuels in the winter of 2011-12.

[Julian Smith (Skipton and Ripon) (Con)]

12. What progress he is making on ensuring that off-grid households have access to affordable heating fuels in the winter of 2011-12.

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

On Tuesday, the Office of Fair Trading published its study of the off-grid energy market, which found that action is needed to protect heating oil consumers in some areas. Ahead of next winter, the Department has been working with industry and consumer groups in a national campaign to encourage customers to order early and ensure they are well prepared for winter. We have also reminded terminal operators to ensure that they have sufficient salt to maintain access to their depots in the event of snow and ice over the coming winter.

[Dr Coffey]

I welcome the study published this week and the debate yesterday, when a lot of contributions were made on this matter. I encourage the Minister, though, to think about extending Ofgem’s protection to consumers so that they can all enjoy greater focus and access to the energy ombudsman.

[Charles Hendry]

As my hon. Friend will be aware, I extended an offer to her and other colleagues yesterday to meet me to talk about how we can take forward the work of the Office of Fair Trading to identify potential market abuses that still need to be dealt with, to see how the gas grid can be developed and to check that the appropriate regulation is in place.