Oral Answers to Questions

Charles Kennedy Excerpts

Thursday 16th December 2010 Commons Chamber

[The Minister of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change (Charles Hendry)]

I would be very grateful if the hon. Lady could give me more details, because we have also heard that some companies are asking people to take lower amounts so that the delivery lorries can get to more homes and more people before Christmas. That is obviously the sensible approach. I would be very concerned if companies were artificially raising the amounts that they expected people to buy at this time.

[Mr Charles Kennedy (Ross, Skye and Lochaber) (LD)]

As we speak, severe weather is sweeping through the north of the country and heading south. Referring back to the Secretary of State’s remarks about Ofgem, will he stress in all his dealings with that body that for those living in the coldest parts of the country, such as the highlands of Scotland, a fair set of tariffs must be applied that are relevant to their circumstances? There is a real feeling of social injustice, which I believe is entirely justified.

[Chris Huhne]

I am grateful to my right hon. Friend for that question. As he knows, Ofgem is reviewing competitiveness in the market and the scale of the margins. In addition, a discount scheme is in place for those in fuel poverty, and we will underpin that. The Government are committed to preserving winter fuel payments, and to ensuring that cold weather payment schemes continue. Whatever the weather brings for us over the next few weeks, I hope that we will be in a position to help those who are most hard-pressed. I return to the fundamental point, which is that we have this problem every winter, again and again, and it is time that we dealt with its root causes through energy efficiency measures for those in rural poverty, rather than attempting constantly to put sticking-plasters on it.