Energy Update

Wera Hobhouse Excerpts

Monday 5th September 2022 Commons Chamber

[Greg Hands]

Let us be absolutely clear: the new Prime Minister has said that there will be announcements very shortly on the support that will be there. The hon. Gentleman throws his hands up in the air, but he was first elected, if I am not mistaken, under the last Labour Government. When it comes to acting quickly, it took that Labour Government more than 10 years to reverse their policy on nuclear energy, so perhaps he might like to reflect on how quickly Governments can move, and see that this Government have moved incredibly fast to react to changing circumstances on both energy prices and energy supply.

[Wera Hobhouse (Bath) (LD)]

To continue the theme, small businesses will be among the worst hit by the soaring energy bills. Bath Aqua Glass is one of many businesses in my constituency that have told me their energy bill will go up 10 times—not 10%, but 10 times. The company’s bill will go from £14,000 to £130,000. The whole energy sector is completely out of control. We Liberal Democrats have called for emergency covid-style support for small businesses. What are the Government doing, not just in the short term to support small businesses, but in the long term to fix the broken energy sector?

[Greg Hands]

I have already said that this is a priority for the new Prime Minister, and I would expect there to be announcements shortly on what is being done. Businesses are the core of our concern here in relation to energy prices. There is of course no energy price cap for businesses, and we recognise the challenges that businesses—particularly small and medium-sized enterprises that do not qualify as energy-intensive industries but nevertheless use a lot of energy—face at this time. That is exactly the sort of thing the Government are actively looking at.