Roger Williams
Main Page: Roger Williams (Liberal Democrat - Brecon and Radnorshire)Westminster Hall is an alternative Chamber for MPs to hold debates, named after the adjoining Westminster Hall.
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Roger Williams (Brecon and Radnorshire) (LD)
The hon. Gentleman talks about VAT but, of course, VAT is charged at 5% on energy and, as far as I know, it has stayed at that level during this Parliament.
Chris Ruane
The hon. Gentleman might be right about that, but wider cuts are affecting the disposable income of all families, especially the poorest.
The Prime Minister talks a good talk but he does not walk a good walk. He promised from the Dispatch Box that he would force the energy companies to offer the lowest tariffs to the poorest people, but nothing happened—he did not know the detail. The Government need to do much more. Pressure needs to be put on the energy companies and the big bonuses they are handing out at the same time as they increase prices massively. In the past year, two chief executives have left their energy companies. One was given a £13.5 million golden handshake and the other got £15 million. That is obscene at a time when people will be freezing to death—dying of hypothermia in their own homes.
There needs to be an inquiry into the ups and downs of gas prices. When supply is tight, gas prices shoot up, but when it is loosened, they gently come down. The time lag and price lag need to be fully investigated, because people are being ripped off. If customers are middle class and have a steady income, so they pay by direct debit, they are offered a discount of £100, but if people have to fill their electricity or gas meter with 50p and £1 coins, they are charged the maximum, and that is wrong.
There needs to be certainty and unity within the Government on energy policy. We see the antics of Ministers who are opposed to solar farms in the fens. There are MPs—some from north Wales—who are opposed to offshore wind farms, MPs who are opposed to onshore wind farms, and MPs who are opposed to the feed-in tariff. They know what they are against, but they do not know they are for, and the uncertainty and lack of unity has led to a lack of investment in the renewable energy market in my constituency and throughout the UK.
Chris Ruane
I have given way to the hon. Gentleman once; that is all he is getting from me.
The Government have introduced the energy company obligation, for which I give them credit, and £1.2 billion has been set aside for the whole of the UK—[Interruption.] I urge the Minister—he is yakking away over there—to ensure that Wales gets its fair share of that ECO money.
Roger Williams (Brecon and Radnorshire) (LD)
It is a great pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mrs Riordan. I congratulate the hon. Member for Vale of Clwyd (Chris Ruane) on securing this important debate. It is useful to remind ourselves that cold weather means misery for the many people who have to choose between heating their home or finding something to eat. That situation needs to be addressed, and I am sure that the Minister will set out what the coalition Government are doing.
The hon. Gentleman is sometimes known as the hon. Member for Rhyl because of his passion about his constituents there. I have fond memories of Rhyl, because I spent the first holiday that I can remember there, although during that time I unfortunately also had my first tooth extraction, so my memories are mixed. I am sure, however, that the hon. Gentleman would want me to say that Rhyl is a very fine place to have a holiday.
The hon. Gentleman mentioned the scheme in his constituency whereby MOD houses have been joined up to mains gas. One way of remedying fuel poverty is to ensure that as many people as possible have access to mains gas. Many people in my constituency do not have that benefit and suffer as a result. Will the Minister say whether there are any plans for communities in my constituency, such as Coelbren, Abercraf or Llangynidr, to have access to a scheme that would subsidise connection to the mains, because that would make a great deal of difference to those communities?
My second point is about cold weather payments, although this is not directed specifically at the Minister because his Department is not responsible. In their last two years of existence, the Labour Government increased the cold weather payment from £8.50 to £25. That was perhaps seen as a sweetener prior to the general election, but I am pleased that the coalition Government have made that £25 payment permanent, because it makes a real difference to a number of our constituents. However, some of our constituents do not benefit to the extent that they should, as eligibility for the payment is worked out by linking each postcode area to a particular weather station.
That system works reasonably well when an area is linked to a weather station that has the same type of weather and is the same height above sea level. Unfortunately, Coelbren in my constituency is badly served by the process. For a very long time—during my time in this place as well as that of my predecessor—we have campaigned for it not to be associated with a postcode that runs all the way down to the sea at Baglan. Coelbren is linked to the weather station at St Athan, which is almost at sea level as well.
Coelbren, which is 800 feet above sea level, often does not benefit from cold weather payments, whereas Ystradgynlais, which is at an altitude of probably 200 or 300 feet below, does benefit from the payments, because it is linked to Tredegar, believe it or not. While I do not want to do any disservice to Ystradgynlais at all, because I believe its linkage is fair, the linkage of Coelbren to St Athan is undoubtedly unfair. The area of its postcode is very long and thin, and I know that the hon. Member for Swansea East (Mrs James) would agree, because she has local knowledge of it.
I shall be taking a group of constituents from Coelbren to see the Minister of State, Department for Work and Pensions, my hon. Friend the Member for Thornbury and Yate (Steve Webb), to see whether an exception can be made for that area, because it has been done a great disservice. It is an old coal-mining area with a lot of local authority housing that has not been brought up to the best standards of heat efficiency. A lot of elderly people living there would benefit from cold weather payments, so we shall make a last-ditch appeal for Coelbren to be served better by cold weather payments, because that would make a lot of difference to those people’s comfort and to whether they are in fuel poverty.