Energy Company Charges
Debate between Robert Halfon and Baroness Primarolo(10 years, 2 months ago)
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Kate Hoey
I congratulate the hon. Gentleman on his articulate outlining of the case. He mentions BT. His ten-minute rule Bill next week covers a much wider area, because it is clearly not just the energy companies that do this. Does he not agree with me that a basic principle should be that if someone has a bill and they want to pay it in cash, they should not be charged a penny extra for doing so?
Madam Deputy Speaker (Dawn Primarolo)
Order. Before the hon. Gentleman replies to that intervention, may I remind him that the Backbench Business Committee recommends 10 to 15 minutes for opening speeches? He is not making an opening speech, but he is being allowed that time. That 10 to 15 minutes does not allow extra time for interventions. He has been very generous, but a lot of Members wish to speak. I would be grateful if he could now draw his remarks to a conclusion.
Robert Halfon
Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. I will do my best.
The third claim is that the cost differential—coming on to the point made by my hon. Friend the Member for Shipley (Philip Davies)—is due to the discount that companies offer customers who pay by direct debit. Indeed, many energy companies I spoke to told me that what they actually offered was a discount to encourage customers to use direct debit. However, if companies are using discounts to attract customers, it seems possible that they are using non-direct debit paying customers to subsidise these accounts—the point I made earlier. Differences in price should therefore be called a premium, rather than a discount, which can be misleading. Calling a difference of £390 a discount is like calling a mortuary a negative patients output. Any price savings must be proportional and must be communicated transparently to the customer.
The fourth claim is that the cost is reflective of the fact that those who do not pay by direct debit are more of a risk for non-payment. I have seen the cost breakdown of some companies that shows how much this adds on to the extra charge. Roughly, it makes up about half. Returning to some of the people I quoted at the beginning of this speech, all of them said that they pay on time without fail. Why should they pay more because of other people’s mistakes?
The fifth claim—I am nearing the end of my remarks—is that introducing a cap on what companies can charge consumers would result in everyone’s prices going up. That should not be the case, and the suggestion that it would push up prices is symptomatic of an energy market that is not as competitive as it should be. Energy companies should be fighting to keep these charges as low as possible to hold on to as many customers as they can. It tends to be the smaller companies that charge the least or do not differentiate between payment types. I am pleased that the Government are encouraging new entrants to the market, but in the short term I believe that a moderate cap on fees charged is the answer.
In conclusion, I am not against energy companies. I believe in business, but I believe in fair business, not the juggernaut of the big corporation. That is why I urge the Government, first, properly to investigate these charges and reassure customers that their bills are proportionate and that they are not being hoodwinked. Any companies whose charges are not found to be proportionate should be subject to a fine or windfall tax, with all the money being passed back to the consumer. Secondly, there should be fundamental reform of the system. As I have suggested, late fees should be for those who pay late—
Madam Deputy Speaker (Dawn Primarolo)
Order. It is now three minutes since I asked the hon. Gentleman to conclude his remarks. There is going to be a tight time limit. When I say “conclude”, I normally mean a couple of sentences. I realise he has a lot to say, but to say it within the time is always the challenge in the House. Will he please give us his last two short sentences, otherwise I will just sit him down?
Robert Halfon
Yes, Madam Deputy Speaker.
Finally, a cap should be introduced on the amount a customer can be charged. We need transparency, a cap on charges and fundamental reform.
Fuel Prices
Debate between Robert Halfon and Baroness Primarolo(11 years, 7 months ago)
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Fiona O’Donnell (East Lothian) (Lab)
On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. This is a vital debate, but the Minister was not present at the beginning of it. I wonder whether you could rule on whether or not that showed a lack of respect for Members and for the public at large.
Madam Deputy Speaker (Dawn Primarolo)
Fortunately the Minister is now present to hear the debate, so no further comment is required from me.
Robert Halfon
I must say that I was disappointed by the hon. Lady’s point of order. I made it clear at the outset that this was not a party political issue, and the Minister could not have done more—in his present post, and when he was the Minister responsible for apprenticeships—to show that he cares deeply about issues of this kind.
Madam Deputy Speaker (Dawn Primarolo)
Order. Many Members are trying to intervene, and many of them are not on the list of speakers. There are also lots of Members on that list, however, and they may not get to speak if this opening contribution takes too long. I hope the hon. Member for Harlow bears that in mind.
Robert Halfon
May I therefore ask those who want to intervene but who are not on the list of speakers to make brief interventions, and those who are due to speak not to intervene?
We have established that fuel is more expensive than ever, and not only because of tax, but because of anticompetitiveness in the oil market, and we have seen that cheaper oil is not being passed on to motorists. Thirdly, there is the allegation of price-fixing. This means that, even if oil companies were doing the right thing, hedge funds and speculators are rigging the price of oil to keep it artificially high.
Many academics and financial journalists have said that is happening. In a groundbreaking article in The Daily Telegraph, Rowena Mason showed how oil price “benchmarks” are unregulated and—like LIBOR—are vulnerable to manipulation. The petrolpromise.com dossier shows that the Consumer Federation of America has raised the same concerns, as have Deutsche Bank, professors at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Maryland university and the London School of Economics. Bloomberg has investigated how banks are buying up strategic stocks of oil and hoarding them on ships at sea, or in underground silos.
A whistleblower who trades the oil futures market has contacted petrolpromise.com and given us a detailed statement about how the market is rigged. He says:
“I trade the oil market on a daily basis, and every day the price is manipulated—not just the daily benchmark price but the calendar spreads that make up a large part of the daily volume. All through July, for example, there has been a massive buying-pressure on oil futures for August and September 2012. Both were trading at around a $0.5c to $1 dollar premium. This gives a false impression of the market and inflates the price of the nearby oil price”.
He goes on to say:
“One part of the problem is a lack of market transparency. In the oil futures market, huge volumes are offered and then withdrawn without trading…There is no reason for this behaviour other than to distort market prices.”
He also says that
“unlike stocks and shares where large holdings have to be declared, in the oil market nobody knows where the money is coming from”.
He continues:
“Prices are particularly manipulated at the close of business, when ‘markers’ are set on an average of trades in the last three minutes of the trading session. Every day, around these times, I see that the structure of the market is being moved to bring prices in line with the trading books of whoever is manipulating the market…This is in order to fix the price and make sure a profit is shown on their books.”
It is a long statement, but I wanted to put the key parts of it on the record.
Opportunities for the Next Generation
Debate between Robert Halfon and Baroness Primarolo(12 years, 7 months ago)
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Robert Halfon
It is interesting to hear that, because youth unemployment rose steadily over the past 10 years.
For those who call for a stimulus at all costs, such as the hon. Member for Swansea West (Geraint Davies), that decade is a warning. Even during a boom, we cannot spend our way to full employment. Other factors must be taken into account. From 2001, we asked teachers to spread themselves too thinly, with too many competing priorities. Maths and English suffered, and in the past 10 years, 500,000 children left primary school unable to read or write, which is shameful.
Our business culture is flawed. In Austria and Germany, for example, one in four businesses offer apprenticeships to young people, but in England it is just one in 10. Twice as many Germans qualify to become apprentices, or gain technical skills, compared with British people. What has gone wrong in the UK for our skills levels to be so low? I accept that the previous Government, as many Opposition Members have said, were concerned about youth unemployment, but far too often the schemes that were introduced in the past 10 years worked like a hamster’s wheel: people were shifted around and around, but they did not get anywhere.
The future jobs fund, which was celebrated by the right hon. Member for Southampton, Itchen (Mr Denham), cost a huge amount—£6,500 per placement. As I said in an intervention, about 50% of people who took part in the scheme went on the dole. I accept that there is genuine concern in all parts of the House about young people, but some of the policies introduced by the previous Government failed to get to grips with the problem, which should have been acknowledged in the Opposition motion.
What is to be done? We must improve our schools, build up vocational education, and encourage the right climate for employers to create jobs. We are already seeing a massive expansion in academies, and free schools and simpler budget lines for colleges have been introduced. All state schools will be assessed on maths and English, and that new focus is yielding results. We must build up vocational education. As has been said, the Government are funding 100,000 sponsored work experience placements for jobless 18 to 21-year olds. All vocational training will be free at the point of access, with costs repayable only when someone earns a decent salary. As has also been said, record numbers of people are signing up for apprenticeships—real apprenticeships—and getting into work.
The flagship, I believe, will be the 24 university technical colleges, which are being driven by Lord Baker and Lord Adonis. Their vision is for new 14-to-19 apprentice schools, which will be led by employers and will be centres of excellence in manufacturing, building and engineering. That will be a conveyor belt to university and high-skilled jobs. The first round of UTCs will be announced this autumn, and Harlow college in my constituency has made a strong bid to be one of the first, specialising in building systems and the new internet media that are helping to grow our economy at the London TechHub. It is shame that the shadow Secretary of State did not mention UTCs and the advantages that they will bring.
As has been said, we must encourage the right climate for employers to create jobs. Like other hon. Members, I have employed an apprentice, and I am recruiting another one at the moment. However, one problem experienced by my apprentice is that universities did not give his NVQ the UCAS points that it deserved. Apprenticeships are much harder in many ways than A-levels, and we should recognise that in the UCAS system. Elsewhere in the Government there are initiatives to create a job-friendly climate, including the Work programme, lower taxes for lower earners, welfare reform, and cuts in small business tax and corporation tax. In the past few months, I have worked with the National Union of Students and major UK firms to launch a new apprentice card, which has received strong support from my hon. Friend the Minister for Further Education, Skills and Lifelong Learning. It will give apprentices the same financial benefits as those for A-level and university students.
I congratulate the hon. Member for Newcastle upon Tyne North (Catherine McKinnell) on her push for apprenticeships in public sector contracts. I urge the Government to implement that proposal, not just nationally but in local councils. I have called for that repeatedly, and I have discussed it with members of Essex council, which is taking a serious look at it.
The number of jobs available has been discussed, and I want to read something from a recent letter sent to me by Monster, the jobs company:
“In order to meet…challenges, we have identified that the problem lies, not with the availability of jobs, but the failure to match jobseekers to job vacancies.”
That is crucial: it is about information and changing the culture so that people know what jobs are available. We must make sure that the National Apprenticeship Service and other schemes work as they should. In the next few weeks, I will launch a parliamentary academy—some hon. Members will have received a letter from me about this—with Martin Bright and his charity New Deal of the Mind.
Youth unemployment is devastating, and if we can improve school and vocational training—
Robert Halfon (Harlow) (Con)
On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. I thought that this debate was about opportunities for the next generation, not Bombardier railways.
Madam Deputy Speaker (Dawn Primarolo)
Mr Halfon, I think that you will find that that is a matter for me, not you. The hon. Member for Derby North (Chris Williamson) will return to the debate.