Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that savings from the roll-out of smart meters will be passed on to consumers.

Smart metering will give consumers the tools they need – through access to energy consumption data – to take control of their energy use. Consumers can start saving energy from the moment their smart meter is installed. In a recent survey Smart Energy GB found that 86% of people with a smart meter said they made energy saving changes to their behaviour.

Suppliers have a strong incentive to keep costs down. If suppliers do not deliver the programme cost-efficiently, they risk losing customers to their competitors.

Smart meters will help improve engagement and competition. The Programme will give households the information to allow them to be more active consumers and more easily act upon poor service of expensive tariffs, by being able to switch suppliers quickly and simply.

Ahead of that, the Government is introducing legislation to cap poor value standard variable and default tariffs.