Energy Markets

Catherine Fookes Excerpts

Thursday 5th March 2026 Commons Chamber

[Ed Miliband]

The hon. Lady raises an important issue. Indeed, the Under-Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, my hon. Friend the Member for Stockton North (Chris McDonald)—who has briefly left the Chamber—is also a Minister at the Department for Business and Trade and has a particular focus on how we can help small businesses to get better deals. Better regulation of the deals they get is one area where Ofgem will have a role in what was previously an un-regulated or under-regulated market. On the wider point about the impact of the crisis on small businesses, I reiterate to the hon. Lady, by way of reassurance, what I have said to other hon. Members. The Government are absolutely focused on the impact of the crisis on households and indeed businesses, and we will not hesitate to act.

[Catherine Fookes (Monmouthshire) (Lab)]

I thank the Secretary of State for his statement and for the Government’s laser focus on renewable energy in England and Wales. Does he agree that this should deliver basically a triple whammy for us? We will not be at the mercy of foreign states for our energy, bills for consumers will go down and, finally, we will reduce the impact of the biggest threat to our planet, which is climate change.

[Ed Miliband]

My hon. Friend is so right. I talk to partners around the world, including in Europe, which the Liberal Democrats asked about, and elsewhere, and it is interesting that so many other countries now take this approach. The case for renewables was always a climate case, but for so many it is now as much an energy security case, because they are in a similar place to us: they are price takers, not price makers.