Fuel Poverty
Debate between Tim Farron and Chris Evans(13 years, 10 months ago)
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Chris Evans
I am always happy to take interventions, but the hon. Gentleman has just raised one of the major points I am going to make. I will come to that, thank you very much.
In quite a cynical move, when people were about to celebrate Christmas, British Gas, Southern Electric, ScottishPower, and Scottish and Southern Energy, introduced a price rise. In fact, five of the big six suppliers have now announced increases, which have taken effect, although EDF has announced that it will hold its prices until March 2011. Those increases mean that average annual electricity and gas bills are now £1,239.
In November, the regulator, Ofgem, announced that it was reviewing whether the profits made by the industry were too high, but I have to admit that I am quite sceptical about that review. Since 2001, 18 reviews have been conducted by Ofgem, Members of this House, the European Commission, the Competition Commission and the Government, all of which have had little or no impact on prices.
Tim Farron (Westmorland and Lonsdale) (LD)
I congratulate the hon. Gentleman on securing the debate. He is right to be sceptical about those reviews, but will he spend some time talking about those who rely on fuel from sources that are not regulated? In many rural areas, including my constituency, for example, about a tenth or a fifteenth of constituents are on off-mains liquefied petroleum gas or oil supplies. Over the past 18 months, their fuel bills have gone up by more than 100%—they are not regulated at all. Should the Government take steps to ensure that such fuel providers are regulated, just as mains providers are?