Business of the House

Richard Graham Excerpts

Thursday 13th October 2011 Commons Chamber

[Sir George Young]

The hon. Gentleman has made a powerful case for the Health and Social Care Bill, which is currently in another place. The Bill reinforces the links between the NHS and local government, and gives local government much more influence on how the NHS will be run in future.

[Richard Graham (Gloucester) (Con)]

As energy bills rocket and more of my constituents might be unable to pay their energy bills—especially if this winter is as hard as has been widely predicted—may I endorse the call from my hon. Friend the Member for Bridgwater and West Somerset (Mr Liddell-Grainger) for a debate so that the Government can reassure the House that the price of developing greener technologies will not fall on our poorest pensioners?

[Sir George Young]

My hon. Friend is quite right. There was a written ministerial statement earlier this week reminding everybody that cold weather payments are £25 a week when activated. Those payments complement the winter fuel payments, the green deal and other measures we are taking to reduce the costs of energy. There is also work going on to increase transparency and the ease with which people can switch from one supplier to another. I would welcome such a debate.