Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Labour - Weaver Vale)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what support the Government plans to provide to people who rely on domestic heating oil as their main heating source for their homes.
Answered by Graham Stuart
Households not on standard gas or electricity contracts, such as those in rural areas, will receive equivalent support to that provided through the Energy Bills Support Scheme, and the Energy Price Guarantee. The Government is working at pace to determine the most practical and tested routes to deliver this support. As part of this, for households who do not use gas for domestic heating, the Government has committed to provide an additional payment of £100 to compensate for the rising costs of other fuels such as heating oil.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Labour - Weaver Vale)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent assessment he has made of the impact of the rise in energy costs on energy-intensive industries; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Government remains determined to secure a competitive future for our energy intensive industries (EIIs), providing them with extensive support, including over £2 billion to help with the costs of energy and to protect jobs. The British Energy Security Strategy recently announced an extension of the EII Compensation Scheme for a further three years and its budget will be more than doubled.
The Government announced a new six-month scheme – the Energy Price Guarantee for Businesses (EPGB) – to protect all businesses and other non-domestic energy users from soaring energy costs. It will offer comparable support to that being provided for consumers and more details will follow shortly. After this initial six-month scheme, the Government will provide focused support for vulnerable sectors, targeted to make sure those most in need get support.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Labour - Weaver Vale)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of providing industry-specific support for energy-intensive industries over autumn 2022.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Government remains determined to secure a competitive future for our energy intensive industries (EIIs), providing them with extensive support, including over £2 billion to help with the costs of energy and to protect jobs. As part of our British Energy Security Strategy, we recently announced an extension of the EII Compensation Scheme for a further three years and its budget will be more than doubled.
The Government announced a new six-month scheme – the Energy Price Guarantee for Businesses (EPGB) – to protect all businesses and other non-domestic energy users from soaring energy costs. It will offer comparable support to that being provided for consumers and we expect the scheme to be available in the autumn.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Labour - Weaver Vale)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he is taking to provide additional targeted support for all disabled people with high energy usage needs.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government understands that some households with a disability or medical condition will have higher energy costs than average. Certain specialised NHS England services do provide rebates on energy costs for patients using medical equipment at home, such as home oxygen concentrators or adult home dialysis. These arrangements are unique to the contracts or service specifications of these conditions. Clinical Commissioning Groups are best placed to support their local populace.
On 26 May, as part of an additional £15 billion package of cost-of-living support, it was announced that the six million people who receive disability allowance will get a payment of £150 to assist with rising energy prices. Additionally, households will get £400 of support with their energy bills through an expansion of the Energy Bills Support Scheme.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Labour - Weaver Vale)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will make it his policy to remove the requirement to pay back the £200 payment for energy costs through the Energy Bill Support Scheme.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
On the 26 May my Rt hon Friend Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer announced that the Energy Bills Support Scheme will increase to £400 from October 2022, which will now be a non-repayable grant.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Labour - Weaver Vale)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will amend the changes to the eligibility criteria for the Warm Home Discount to retain support for disabled people’s higher energy usage needs.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
I refer the Hon. Member to the answer I gave to the Hon. Member for Lewisham, Deptford on 28 April 2022 to Question 155833.
My Rt hon Friend Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer has also announced a one-off £150 payment for people on disability benefits this year, alongside other cost of living support measures.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Labour - Weaver Vale)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of the process on retrofitting homes; and if he will take steps to speed up that process.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government has committed to spend £6.6billion across this Parliament to decarbonise buildings. This funding supports energy efficiency improvements through the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund, the Local Authority Delivery Scheme and the Home Upgrade Grant.
Through the Energy Company Obligation, the Government has also set a target for larger energy suppliers to deliver energy efficiency savings by 2026. For those not eligible for Government support, the green finance offer will be improved.
The Government is also investing in training. In 2021, the £6 million BEIS Skills Training Competition resulted in 7,000 opportunities to learn retrofit skills and will be developing plans for a 2022/23 competition.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Labour - Weaver Vale)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with reference to the Warm Home Discount, if he will reverse the proposed change to the criteria of eligibility for financial support towards energy bills that would mean those in receipt of disability living allowance, personal independence payment and attendance allowance will no longer be able to claim from the discount scheme.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Introducing non-means-tested benefits, such as Personal Independence Payment (PIP), Disability Living Allowance (DLA) and Attendance Allowance (AA), into the eligibility criteria would mean that many households on lower incomes and in deeper fuel poverty would be disadvantaged.
Around 62% of PIP and DLA recipients also receive one of the qualifying means-tested benefits and so would be considered low-income under the Core Group 2 criteria. Those households with high energy costs would be eligible for a rebate. Recipients of AA, a pension-age benefit, who claim Pension Credit Guarantee Credit will, in most cases, qualify for a rebate through Core Group 1.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Labour - Weaver Vale)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment his Department has made of the impact on Royal Mail customers of (a) the price increase on Royal Mail stamps and (b) current stamps which will no longer be valid from January 2023.
Answered by Paul Scully
As a private business, Royal Mail’s management sets the prices for its services. The Government does not have a role in Royal Mail’s day-to-day commercial or operational decisions. In setting its prices however, Royal Mail must work within the regulatory framework set by Ofcom, the independent regulator. This framework currently imposes price caps on certain second-class products.
In January 2021, Royal Mail raised the price of second-class standard letter stamps to the level of the cap, and it can now only raise prices for that product in line with CPI rates for the remainder of Ofcom’s current review period, ending in March 2024. Ofcom plans to begin work towards the end of this year on a review of the appropriate scope and level of the safeguard caps that should apply from April 2024.
The development of stamp products is also an operational matter for Royal Mail. Royal Mail has announced a ‘Swap Out’ scheme to exchange existing stamps for new barcoded versions which is set to open on 31 March 2022. Royal Mail will set out further details on the scheme in due course.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Labour - Weaver Vale)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if his Department will hold discussions with representatives of British Gas on the effect of the increase in energy tariffs on customers with pre-payment meters (a) with and (b) without pre-paid credit on their pre-payment meter.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government is in regular contact with industry to discuss the impact of unprecedented global gas prices and will continue to monitor the situation closely to ensure consumers are protected.
Ofgem has robust rules in place to protect Prepayment meter customers. In December 2020, Ofgem introduced Licence Conditions that require energy suppliers to provide extra support for customers using prepayment meters. These include an obligation on suppliers to make emergency and friendly-hours credit available to all pre-payment meter customers.
Where a supplier identifies that a prepayment customer is in a vulnerable situation, including where a customer is self-disconnecting or self-rationing their supply, they must offer additional support credit. When assessing how a customer will repay any credit offered, suppliers must also consider their ability to pay.