Energy Costs

Jim Shannon Excerpts

Thursday 22nd January 2026 Commons Chamber

[Bill Esterson]

As I said in my statement, the years and years of under-investment—the complete opposite of what was promised when the energy system was privatised in 1989—have led us to this place. That has been a very large contributor to the challenge with energy bills that we face now. The Committee heard evidence from E3G that as much as £500 in profit is made in the private sector from an average household bill. When we recommended that the debt be written off by using the excess profits made by the network companies, we were told that that would cause a chilling effect on future investment. Of course, that problem would not exist if we had not gone down the privatisation route in the way that we have. My hon. Friend makes a good point, but we are where we are, and we are going to have to find answers to the question of how we bring down bills further, in addition to the measures already taken by the Government.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

I thank the Chair and the Select Committee for considering this massive issue. Around 40,000 older people in Northern Ireland—that is over 10% of older people there—live in poverty. Energy is perhaps one of their biggest outlays and it is critical. Did the Committee consider what can be done to protect our elderly against the worst energy crises, which really can be life or death?

[Bill Esterson]

That is a very important question. It was an important part of what we looked at in the first half of the inquiry. Our recommendations on the cold weather payments are relevant to what the hon. Gentleman asks, as are our recommendations on debt for those very many people who, because of the energy crisis, now face debt. We also made recommendations on the warm home discount, including extending it to all on benefits. The Government chose to stay with the current system, but these were very much recommendations that we supported for the reasons that the hon. Gentleman outlined. As I said when finishing my statement, I hope the Government will return some of the recommendations that they have so far not accepted.