Asked by: Yuan Yang (Labour - Earley and Woodley)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps he is taking to help reduce household energy bills.
Answered by Martin McCluskey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Tackling affordability is this government’s number one priority. The Government has acted on energy bills, with our decisions at last year’s Budget driving the price cap down: those decisions are now factored into bills for the years to come.
We will continue to monitor the situation ahead of the winter and plan for all contingencies. The country must learn the right lessons from this war: rising energy bills show the British people are paying the price of our exposure to volatile fossil fuel markets, and that is why we are doubling down on clean power.
Asked by: Yuan Yang (Labour - Earley and Woodley)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether his Department has made an estimate of the cost to the public purse of introducing a discounted essential energy block for all households; and how this compares to the current cost of means-tested energy support schemes.
Answered by Martin McCluskey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government recognises the need to support vulnerable households which are struggling with bills whilst we transition to clean power. That is why the Autumn Budget acted to take an average £150 of costs off people’s energy bills. This support came on top of the £150 off energy bills provided for around 6 million families under the Warm Home Discount, cutting fuel poverty.
A discounted essential energy block is one form of energy bills support, the cost of which would depend on the size of the subsidised block and how many households are supported. As important as the support mechanism is the ability to target it at those who most need support. We are working across Government to improve access to and sharing of relevant data to enable us to target support more effectively in the future. Specifically, the ‘Kickstarter’ programme under the National Data Library is testing how public sector data can be used to better target support.