Lord Vaux of Harrowden
Main Page: Lord Vaux of Harrowden (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)(6 days, 1 hour ago)
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Lord Wilson of Sedgefield (Lab)
I welcome that question; we have to balance increasing it for a certain number of people with widening it out to as many people in fuel poverty as possible. The Government are doing the right thing by extending it from about 2.7 million to 6 million people in fuel poverty—to people who would have received no payment whatever.
Lord Vaux of Harrowden (CB)
My Lords, one of the main reasons why electricity prices are so high is the bizarre way the wholesale market works. If I need to buy 10 pints of milk, so I go to my supermarket, where they are 95p each but it has only nine, and then buy the 10th pint from the corner shop for £2, I do not have to go back to the supermarket and pay the difference so that all 10 cost me £2 each. That would clearly be insane. But that is exactly how the electricity wholesale market works. Does the Minister agree that that is mad and that it is time we stopped setting the wholesale price at the highest cost generator in each half-hourly trading slot?
Lord Wilson of Sedgefield (Lab)
That is a good question, and the Government keep this under review at all times. We find ourselves in very difficult times; since the fuel crisis in 2022, we have been dealing with a very difficult situation, and this is under review all the time.