Energy Price Freeze

Debate between Baroness Berger and Neil Carmichael

Wednesday 6th November 2013 Commons Chamber

[Neil Carmichael]

The hon. Gentleman is right—that is a perfectly good point.

[Luciana Berger]

Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

[Neil Carmichael]

Not yet, because I am dealing with this point. A price freeze simply freezes the problem and does not enable a solution to be introduced. I have admitted that we need to find ways of driving prices down—of course we do—but a price freeze is not the right way because it will prevent firms from responding normally to the market. As the right hon. Member for Gordon (Sir Malcolm Bruce) correctly noted, if we start freezing one thing it is not long before we need to freeze a few more things in order to keep up.