Warm Home Discount

14:09:00

With your permission, Madam Deputy Speaker, I would like to make a statement about the action we are taking to protect families in the face of the global spike in gas prices. In recent months, wholesale gas prices have risen to their highest level in two years. They are up nearly 15% compared with the previous price cap period. As a result, this morning Ofgem announced the energy price cap will rise by around £9 a month between April and June. We know this will be unwelcome news for families across the country that are already worried about their bills, but as Ofgem’s chief executive officer, Jonathan Brearley, said today, “our reliance on international gas markets leads to volatile wholesale prices, and continues to drive up bills”. This week marks three years since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and once again the British people are paying the price of our country being exposed to fossil fuel markets controlled by petrostates and dictators. The truth is that every day we remain stuck on gas is another day families, businesses and, indeed, the public finances are at risk from these kinds of price spikes. That is why sprinting to home-grown, clean energy is the only way to end our exposure and our vulnerability as a country. In the meantime, we are determined to do all that we can to protect people, and today I want to set out the measures we are taking. First, we want to provide greater help to the most vulnerable in time for next winter. The warm home discount currently gives around 3 million families a £150 rebate on their energy bills. The current system provides help to those on means-tested benefits, but excludes millions of people in homes not classified as hard to heat, as a result of criteria introduced by the last Government in 2022. These criteria are seen by many as arbitrary and unreliable, and they mean there are families in almost exactly the same circumstances with some receiving help and others not. Today, we have announced that we will consult on proposals to abolish this restriction, meaning all households receiving means-tested benefits would be eligible for bills support next winter—from 3 million families in the current system to more than 6 million with our proposals—so that one in five families in Britain would get help with their bills through this scheme, including an additional 900,000 families with children and a total of 1.8 million households in fuel poverty. This Government are determined to do everything in our power to help people struggling to pay their energy bills and support the most vulnerable in our society. Secondly, because of our exposure to fossil fuels, the cost of living crisis saw bills rocket to £2,500 and families plunged into unstable debt—debt that continues to accumulate today. In the system we have inherited, every bill payer pays for managing this debt burden. We are determined to act on behalf of those in debt and all the bill payers who are paying the costs of it. So we are working closely with Ofgem to accelerate proposals on a debt relief scheme that will support households that have built up unsustainable energy debt through the crisis and have no way of paying it. This will be an important first step to cut the costs of servicing bad energy debt, and under these plans the target would be to reduce the debt allowance paid by all bill payers to pre-crisis levels. Thirdly, we know that one of the best answers to high bills is upgrading homes so that they are cheaper to run, so we will shortly announce the details of around £0.5 billion pounds of funding under the warm homes local grant and £1.3 billion under the warm homes social housing fund to invest in home upgrades over the coming years and cut fuel poverty. In all, up to 300,000 households will benefit from upgrades in the next financial year through our warm homes plan—whether it is new insulation, double glazing, a heat pump or rooftop solar panels—which is more than double the number supported in the last financial year. We will also ensure that landlords invest in energy efficiency upgrades that will make homes warmer and bring down costs for tenants, lifting up to 1 million people out of fuel poverty, so that we are doing everything we can to ensure people have the security of a home they can afford to heat. Fourthly, we are clear that we need a regulator that fights for consumers. That is why we have called on Ofgem to use its powers to the maximum to protect consumers by challenging unlawful back billing, taking action on inaccurate bills, driving the smart meter roll-out, giving every family the option of a zero standing charge tariff so they have more choice in how they pay for their energy, and ensuring that compensation is given for wrongful installation of prepayment meters. We are moving forward on our review of Ofgem to ensure it has the powers it needs to stand up for consumers and clamp down on poor behaviour by energy companies. This set of measures shows a Government willing to use all the powers at our disposal to help protect consumers. However, important as these measures are, I must stress to the House that there is no proper solution to rising energy bills while this country remains exposed to the rollercoaster of fossil fuel markets. That is why this Government are moving at speed to deliver clean power by lifting the onshore wind ban in England, consenting nearly 3 GW of solar, setting up Great British Energy, delivering a record-breaking renewables auction, making it easier to build the next generation of new nuclear power stations, and getting on with the job of implementing the reforms to the planning system, the grid and renewables auctions set out in our clean power action plan. I have to report to the House, however, that despite the importance of this mission and the fact that we are running it, we continue to receive representations from Opposition parties not to speed up, but to slow down and to reject solar power, reject onshore wind, reject offshore wind and reject new transmission infrastructure—representations that, if accepted, would leave us more vulnerable and more insecure, with the British people paying the price. Let me tell the House that we will reject those representations. We know that every solar panel we put up, every wind turbine we build and every piece of transmission infrastructure we construct makes us more secure, and every time the Conservatives oppose those measures, they double down on their legacy of leaving this country exposed and the British people deeply vulnerable. This Government will do whatever it takes to stand up for working people now and in the future—protecting families and businesses from the consequences of global events, driving forward our plans to bring down bills for good and doing everything in our power to support those most in need. I commend this statement to the House.

I call the shadow Minister.

14:17:00

I thank the Minister for advance sight of her statement. Today, the Government have announced an expansion of the warm home discount, with a change to the criteria that will see more low-income households receive a £150 payment to heat their homes, but for many this payment will be immediately eaten up by the increase in the energy price cap. We must be clear that the best protection for vulnerable households is to prioritise cheap energy. The announcement today is, frankly, a sticking-plaster approach to rising energy bills. This Government fail to grasp the core issue: energy costs in this country are far too high for businesses, industry and, of course, bill payers. When the energy price cap rose in 2022, the now Secretary of State called it a “national emergency”. He called for an urgent freeze on energy bills and cited a lack of leadership. Now that he is in government, the only thing he is able to freeze is vulnerable pensioners by taking away their winter fuel allowance with no notice. Does the Minister think that shows leadership? I know that my constituents, and presumably hers too, will be concerned about their bills rising, concerned about inflation creeping back up—hitting 3% in January, despite the hard work done last year to bring it under control—and angry that Labour’s promise to cut bills by £300 is being broken. The worst part of all of this is that this Government, led by ideological zealotry from the Secretary of State, are doubling down. Their obsession with going further and faster than any country in the world to meet their own self-imposed 2030 target is going to increase people’s bills even further. The renewables industry has warned that their rush to build record renewables in the next five years will push up prices and “consumers will lose out”. The Government’s rush to build twice as much grid in the next five years as was built in the last decade will increase the network costs on people’s bills. The Office for Budget Responsibility has said that the environmental levies will increase to £14 billion in 2030, largely driven by the hidden cost of renewables, all of which will end up on people’s energy bills. The Labour party was not honest about its promise during the election to cut bills by £300, it was not honest about its plan to take the winter fuel payment away from millions of pensioners living in poverty, and now it is not being honest with the British people about what its plans will do to our energy bills. If we have learned anything over the past few years, it is that the cost of energy is absolutely critical to any modern economy. We cannot go on following ideology over evidence and putting political targets ahead of what will cut the cost of energy in this country. However, this Government are in denial, which is why they scrapped the full system cost analysis commissioned when the Conservatives were in office. Will the Minister say when proposals for a debt relief scheme will be published? Will she confirm by how much she expects levies to increase over the next five years? Will she commission a full system cost analysis of what the 2030 target will do to people’s energy bills? Will she confirm by how much bills will rise before we see the £300 off, which we were all promised?

The hon. Gentleman is right that energy prices are too high—on that, we agree. We also agree that that is worrying for families and businesses across the country. However, I would point out that 80% of this rise has been driven by wholesale prices. I would also gently remind him that the reason we are in this position—the reason we are so exposed to global fossil fuel prices over which we have no control—is because the Conservatives spent 14 years in government squandering the opportunity to accelerate the transition to clean power and reduce our dependence on global fossil fuel prices, leaving families across the country exposed. The status quo is not tenable. We are at a point where energy prices are at an historic high, and we got here under his Government. That is a status quo that we are not willing to contend with. That is the reason—not because of ideology, but because we see the obvious: as long as we are dependent on global fossil fuel prices, we will be on this rollercoaster. That is what is driving the push to clean power. While the Conservatives have no alternatives, we have a clear alternative: we run to clean power; and while we do that, we support the most vulnerable households in the short term. To answer the shadow Minister’s question, Ofgem is in the process of consulting on the debt support scheme as we speak, and we will support it to put that in place. We know that the debt burden has increased by £3.8 billion, and more than 1.8 million households in need of help will be supported by that scheme. We are absolutely committed to cutting bills—everything we are doing as a Government is driven by that desire and clear commitment. We will do that both through short-term measures and, critically, by running at clean power by 2030. We have a plan to deal with energy bills. The Opposition have a plan to slow down and do nothing, and it will be the British public who pay the price.

It is clear that the Conservative party left this country dependent on global fossil fuel supplies, which both burn the planet and are damaging in terms of price controls. However, the Tories left something else as well: a rigged energy market, which gave £480 billion to the energy industry yet left 8 million households—probably 17 million people—in fuel poverty, spending more than 10% of their income on energy. It is therefore welcome that the Minister has today announced an additional £150 for the warm home discount, but that, as I understand it, is a one-off payment for next winter. A £150 one-off payment will not resolve the underlying problem—today, the regulator has increased the cap by £111 or £108, depending on how it is calculated, per year on an ongoing basis. I welcome the Government’s announcement and recognise the Minister’s commitment to changing the way that things work. However, will my hon. Friend confirm to the House that the Government intend to end this rigged market, which works in favour of the profiteers, and tackle the scourge of fuel poverty, while at the same time securing a just transition to clean energy?

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. We have an energy market that does not work sufficiently in the interest of consumers, and we are committed to turning that around. That is why we are reforming the electricity market, why we are trying to drive forward a shift from fossil fuels to clean power, and why we are putting in place the review of Ofgem, to ensure that customers and consumers are at the very heart of everything we do in the energy market. This is an important step to supporting households in the short term. We took action this winter, with up to £1 billion of support through Government and industry to help the most vulnerable customers, and the measures announced today will ensure that we will provide support next winter. However, it is not the end of our ambition; it is the start of our ambition to reform the energy market.

I call the Liberal Democrat spokesperson.

I thank the Minister for advance sight of her statement. It is deeply troubling that we remain so reliant on the foreign gas markets and that, as a result, vulnerable people in this country will see an increase in their bills. I completely welcome the proposals to expand the warm home discount. No one should have to choose between heating and eating—we all know that. However, the reality is that we have to get beyond that issue and reduce consumption, instead of just handing public money to our energy giants. The Lib Dems have been calling for a 10-year emergency home insulation plan for a long time, and it was disappointing that the amendment tabled to the Great British Energy Bill by my hon. Friend the Member for South Cambridgeshire (Pippa Heylings) was not taken up, so I would be grateful if that could be looked at again in any other scope. What timeline can we expect for the upgrade of building standards for new homes and the decent homes standard for existing properties, so that people are not having to consume as much electricity and gas? Until all homes are properly insulated, what progress has been made on requiring all energy companies to sign up to a single social tariff, paying particular attention to the pensioners left cold after the removal of the winter fuel allowance? I was contacted by Michael from H2-ecO, a company that does lots of retrofitting, who told me about the home upgrade grant, affectionately known as HUG, which is ending in March, when it is due to be replaced immediately, with continuity, by the warm homes local grant. The company was told on Friday that it will not be continued, and that there will be a pause—five weeks before the scheme ends. People have been told that they would be able to pre-register, but now they are told that there will be a pause. They asked me to tell you that they are concerned that they will lose their contractors [Interruption.] Sorry—not you, Madam Deputy Speaker, but the Minister. I apologise.

Order. You have two minutes for your contribution, and you are just over that. If you could come to a conclusion, that would be great.

I absolutely will, Madam Deputy Speaker. They asked me to ask you—sorry, they asked me to ask the Minister what guarantee can be offered that the scheme will open immediately, and not be slowed by reviews, and when will you set out your long-term plans before 2026?

When will you set those out, Minister, since I will not be responding at the Dispatch Box?

The hon. Lady is right that insulating and upgrading people’s homes is the route by which we will reduce bills and deliver homes that are warmer and cheaper to run. That is why we are absolutely committed to the warm homes plan. Rather than there being a pause, we are running at this. Next financial year, 300,000 homes will be upgraded, which is double the number in the previous financial year, and that is just the start for our warm homes plan. We are working with colleagues in the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to bring forward the future homes and buildings standards. Critically, we have spoken to industry, installers and local government, and we are acutely aware that there should and cannot be a hiatus. We are moving forward with the local grant and the warm homes social housing scheme to ensure that there is not one. I ask the hon. Lady to write with the specifics of that scheme, because we are trying to design it to stop that. Critically, on the social tariff, we are clear that clean power is the route by which we will bear down on energy costs in the long term, but that we will need to support the most vulnerable customers as we get there. There are different ways to design a social tariff, and we are looking at options for how to support the most vulnerable at the moment, and the warm home discount is a key part of delivering that.

I call Luke Murphy, a member of the Energy Security and Net Zero Committee.

Many of my constituents, like others across the country, will be concerned about the increase in their energy bills announced today. I therefore welcome the Government’s extension of the warm home discount, as well as the measures to tackle unsustainable debt and push the regulator to do more to support consumers. I must say that the shadow Minister talks as if his Government left a legacy of low energy prices, when it was his Government who left an appalling legacy of high energy prices. I have stood in both this Chamber and Westminster Hall and heard shadow Ministers attack renewables and electric vehicles—do they not realise that they are attacking the very means of bringing down the cost of energy? Does the Minister agree that our clean energy mission and renewables is the fastest way to ensure we end our dependence on volatile fossil fuels, which also leaves us at the mercy of Vladimir Putin?

I thank my hon. Friend—that was well said. The Conservative party left us with the highest energy prices that we have seen in a generation. That is a legacy that, quite frankly, should see them hang their heads in shame. Rather than criticising us for trying to unpick and deal with their legacies, I would strongly caution them to support our action. [Interruption.] It is their legacy! My hon. Friend is right: the way that we get out of this bind, left by and inherited from the Conservative party, is through clean power, delivering renewables that we know are cheaper and clean power by 2030. My hon. Friend is right; the Conservative party continues to be misguided. Thankfully, we are in the driving seat.

I call a member of the Energy Security and Net Zero Committee, Bradley Thomas.

Rising energy costs affect not just households but industry. Sir Jim Ratcliffe has said that deindustrialising Britain is a false economy because it “shifts production and emissions elsewhere”. Can the Minister tell the House what is more important: chasing an arbitrary target or protecting industry and jobs?

Businesses are under pressure from high energy prices. We know that. Again, I remind Conservative party Members that given their legacy, they should perhaps be a bit more humble about that. We are working with industry and it recognises that the way to drive down energy bills is through clean power. The Confederation of British Industry came out this week saying that our energy revolution is good for business. It is the route to lower energy costs for business and to creating jobs across the country. We have a plan, not just for energy bills but for jobs and the economy, which is rooted in clean energy, and that is much better than the legacy that we have inherited.

Thousands of my constituents are still dealing with the cost of living crisis, finding themselves in debt because energy prices hit record levels under the previous Government. Energy prices continuing to go up makes those constituents’ lives more difficult, so I welcome the Minister’s statement. Will she, however, provide further reassurance about the immediate action the Government can take to regulate energy companies who are taking their customers for a ride, such as the thousands of my constituents who still do not have meters in their homes and who are being billed unlawfully for backdated energy and, in some cases, energy that they have not used? Will the Minister give the House further reassurance that there needs to be immediate action, as well as a long-term plan from the Government to see the transition to clean energy?

My hon. Friend is absolutely right to point out the cost of living crisis that blights constituencies across the country, with many people facing energy debt totalling £3.8 billion. She is also right, however, to point out that there are things that must be done to ensure that customers are served by the energy market. That is why we are ensuring that the regulator has the power—we are also instructing it to use the ones it has—to ensure that things such as back billing, which we know is an issue, do not happen. The rules are very clear and we need them to be enforced to ensure that when customers do not receive the best customer service from their suppliers, there are consequences. Our review of Ofgem is to ensure that it has the powers it needs to be that champion for consumers. In the end, the energy market must work in the interest of people. We agree that that is not happening at the moment and it must happen after we reform it.

In the UK, electricity prices are linked to the global fossil fuel market, which is at the bottom of UK households’ paying the highest energy costs in Europe. To fix that, the use of a single levy-controlled system has been suggested, with two simple rates—one for electricity and one for gas—set by Ministers. That would allow the Government to manage the cost for households and lower prices, especially for clean energy. Will the Minister look into that suggestion? I am happy to meet her to go through those details further.

Our reform of the energy market arrangements looks at all the aspects of our electricity market that are not working. The Under-Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, my hon. Friend the Member for Rutherglen (Michael Shanks) is looking at that question and the Department is willing to work across the House to ensure we get to the right arrangements. As long as gas continues to drive the cost of energy, that will create a problem and have an impact on consumers. We are alive to that question and will report on that in due course.

I thank the Minister for her statement. I hear from many constituents who suffer with energy debt as a result of the previous Government’s failure to protect billpayers during the energy crisis. Many of them are petrified, unable to move or change providers. I welcome the proposed acceleration of a debt relief scheme, but can the Minister provide more details on how that will help families in my constituency of Portsmouth North?

We know that energy debt is a big problem. I have spoken to people across the country who are suffering with accumulated debt that they have no way of paying, with many having to forfeit energy as a consequence. Ofgem is consulting on a range of options, but at the heart of that is the principle that there needs to be a debt relief scheme. Whether we write off some of the energy debt that cannot be paid, or put in place payment plans, we want to ensure that those 1.8 million households have the opportunity to drive that debt in a way that means their energy will be sustainable. That is absolutely critical. It deals with the legacy of the energy crisis and the fact that many households have had to accumulate debt because they just could not pay £2,500. It is an important step and one that we are keen to support the regulator to deliver.

I entirely agree with the Government that, as the Minister said in her statement, we should not be “paying the price of our country being exposed to fossil fuel markets controlled by petrostates and dictators.” Given that we cannot move completely to clean energy tomorrow, why do the Government insist on closing down and, indeed, concreting over our potential fossil fuel gas reserves until such time as we can move completely to clean energy? Why should we import it from other states while piously saying that we will not extract it from beneath our own country?

There will be a role for gas in our energy mix, but we are very clear that the route and the quickest way to getting ourselves off that dependence is through clean power. We have made a decision that we will put our energy into driving clean power by 2030. In the end, that is the quickest and best route to delivering for consumers and businesses and ensuring that we can deliver energy security, which we all, across the House, agree will deliver financial security for families across the country.

I thoroughly welcome the statement, particularly on the reform of Ofgem and back billing. It is a key plank in the just transition as we move away from a rigged energy market that is totally reliant on imports of gas from dictators such as Putin. It is not, however, just about the transition to renewables. Does the Minister agree that in that transition we will also create hundreds of thousands of new green jobs right across the UK, including in Camborne, Redruth and Hayle, covering onshore wind, offshore wind, geothermal, tidal and solar?

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. At the heart of this is the opportunity to create jobs and boost local economies across the country. That is good not just for our energy independence and family finances, but for every single part of our economy. That is why, rather than slowing down, we are committed to accelerating to deliver clean power by 2030.

Families and businesses obviously operate in an environment with lots of different costs. When they see increases in their tax bills, the burdens of potential new regulation and additional energy costs, they are bound to challenge themselves on what they can afford to invest. The Minister is clear on the Government’s strategic direction, but does she not accept that in the short and medium term the burdens during the journey to change are enormous for business and will have a massive effect on the level of investment in this country? Does that not concern her?

I challenge the right hon. Member on this matter. Businesses are completely behind us because they can see that clean power is the route by which we reduce energy costs and, critically, create jobs and invest in our industry. That is good not just for people’s pockets, and for dealing with the energy problem, which we know we have to deal with, and the affordability problem, but, ultimately, for the economy. It is good for business. This is a win-win situation. It is a shame that the Conservative party cannot see it, because it is obvious to us, obvious to industry, and obvious to businesses across the country. That is why we will continue to power forward with our plans.

The previous Conservative Government abjectly failed to insulate our leaky homes and get our home heating systems ready to take advantage of the cheaper, clean energy that Labour is now creating. In addition to the very welcome discount that the Minister has announced today, does she agree that Labour’s plan to upgrade hundreds of thousands of homes with heat pumps and better insulation next year is a vital part of this Government’s commitment to lowering household bills?

My hon. Friend is completely right: the previous Government failed to insulate and upgrade enough homes to protect people from energy price hikes. Conservative Members are hanging their heads in shame and rightly so. She is also right that we are committed to upgrading hundreds of thousands of homes. That is critical. The way that we ensure that households are insulated from price rises and the way that we drive down prices is to upgrade those homes. That is a central part of our plan. We are already running at it with 300,000 homes in the coming year, but we will build on that, because we want to ensure that homes across the country benefit.

I call a member of the Energy Security and Net Zero Committee.

Chopping and changing home upgrade schemes, as we saw under the previous Conservative Government, causes uncertainty and confusion, which is damaging for both consumers and installers alike. Will this Government avoid that mistake by setting out long-term plans for energy efficiency schemes that go beyond 2026?

One hundred per cent. We need a long-term plan, so that every part of the system can respond to that. Our warm homes plan will try to set a long-term trajectory, so that we can marshal every part of the system necessary to deliver hundreds of thousands of upgrades, year in, year out.

May I welcome the Minister’s announcement around the expansion of the warm home discount scheme? About 160,000 homes in my region will get £150 more help with their energy bills, but, clearly, the root cause of higher prices is higher natural gas prices, which have doubled since the election in July 2024. We know that natural gas is 50% to 75% more expensive than wind and solar, because the sun and the wind are free, and natural gas is not. Can the Minister assure me that we will get into clean energy by 2030, so that we can get our energy bills down for good?

I thank my hon. Friend for making the point so well. He is absolutely right that this is the route by which we can deliver cheaper energy. I can assure him that we are committed to driving this for the reasons that he said. This is the way that we break the stranglehold that we are in. This is the way that we get off this rollercoaster of price rises and price falls that is impacting households across the country. The commitment is there, and we are running with that commitment.

Yet again, an Energy Minister comes to the House to tell us that they are moving at pace. The only thing moving at pace is the last shred of credibility from that Department as it talks about protecting consumers from higher energy prices. Let us not forget that this is the Labour party that stripped 900,000 Scottish pensioners of their winter fuel payment, and that told us that fuel prices would go down £300, when they are now £600 higher than the level it promised they would be ahead of the election. Can the Minister explain three things to me? Did the Labour party profoundly misunderstand how energy in the United Kingdom works, or was it misleading the electorate? Why is it that the Minister is making such a big deal about Ofgem doing its actual job of getting after back billing? Should it not be doing that anyway? Why is that an announcement? Thirdly, when will consumers in GB finally see some response from this Government about higher energy bills?

I remind the hon. Member that the Scottish Government have jurisdiction in this area. We are working in collaboration with them to deliver this, but the Scottish Government do have responsibility in this area and he knows it. We are committed to bearing down on energy bills—of course we are. It is the central driving mission of everything that we are doing as a Government. It has been eight months. I hope that everyone can see from what we have done—whether it is removing the ban on onshore wind, whether it is a record-breaking auction, or whether it is the plans that we have to support the most vulnerable households—that we are running at this. We take our commitment seriously, and we are doing everything in our power to drive it. I suggest that the hon. Gentleman reminds his colleagues in Scotland that they should be using the power that they have, including with the warm home discount, to protect their consumers.

I welcome the Minister’s statement. This extra support will make a huge difference to residents in my constituency of Harlow. One of the issues with living in a post-war new town is that all the houses were built at roughly the same time, so the issues of insulation all appear at roughly the same time. At this morning’s crisis summit, which I and the hon. Member for Mid Dorset and North Poole (Vikki Slade) attended, there was a strong feeling that cross-departmental communication is key to ensuring that funding gets to the people who need it the most. Does the Minister agree?

I completely agree with my hon. Friend. That is why we are working with the Department for Work and Pensions and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, and across Government, to target this support at households, so that we are helping people who we know are struggling.

It was interesting to hear the Minister say how humble we on the Conservative Benches should be. Clearly, the Secretary of State for Energy, Security and Net Zero is so humble that he has not even bothered to turn up for this supposedly important statement. It is no more than a smokescreen, as we are seeing energy bills go up yet again. When will my constituents see the £300 energy cut that was promised by the Government? The Minister talked about international markets. Why on earth are this Government not looking again at drilling in the North sea? It is vital that we do so today; then, rather than just helping out a little bit with means-tested benefits, they could perhaps afford to do more for my constituents who are on £12,000 or £13,000 a year, and for pensioners who are losing their winter fuel payments this very year. Why will they not take a look at that?

Given the legacy of the right hon. Gentleman’s party, a bit more humility is warranted. We are committed to driving down energy bills. Everything that the Department is doing hinges on the central task of getting clean power. Everyone, including the regulator and industry, recognises that prices are going up because of our reliance on global fossil fuels. We are committed to dealing with that, and to providing support to the most vulnerable. We are taking action. The Conservatives were in power for 14 years and did absolutely nothing. Absolute shame on them.

I welcome the Minister’s statement. Will my hon. Friend join me in praising the work of Citizens Advice teams, such as those that I have seen in my constituency of Rugby, who provide really useful support? They help people to navigate the numerous support schemes that the Government have put in place. They also deal with debt management and income maximisation. They are helping our constituents at a difficult time with the cost of living crisis that we inherited. Does she agree that this is valuable work that deserves our continuing support?

My hon. Friend is completely right. Citizens Advice teams, and the network of third-party organisations and charities that they work with, are providing some of the most vital support to our constituents at a really difficult time. Citizens Advice is a key partner. We work with it and engage with it. I am going across the country meeting its teams, because we absolutely need their help to target support at the most vulnerable.

I thank the Minister for her statement, but not for the madness contained within it. Recently, we have discovered a new gas field in Lincolnshire. We could frack the gas, yet we are still importing fracked gas from the United States, which is creating all sorts of mayhem in the atmosphere. Does the Minister agree that it would be better for the environment if we fracked our own gas, rather than importing it from America?

I am disappointed that the hon. Member did not listen to my statement. If he had listened to it properly, he would not have come up with that statement. Once again, there will be a mix, but we are clear that the quickest route to driving down energy bills is through clean power by 2030. That is sprinting at it. There is no other route to delivering energy security and financial security for our country. The industry is behind us on this, and we are working to deliver it.

I welcome the support in this statement, and the fact that 300,000 houses will be insulated in the next year. Does the Minister agree that the only long-term solution that will lead to energy security is our clean power plan? It will be good for areas like mine. The Confederation of British Industry pointed out yesterday that the green economy is growing three times quicker than the wider economy in this country. People want us to speed up, not slow down.

My hon. Friend is 100% right. This is the route by which we will deliver for people’s pockets and, critically, deliver the jobs that we need across the country and boost our economy. We are clear-sighted about what needs to be done. It is a shame that the Conservative party is so blinkered.

We need to produce more energy at home from renewables and oil and gas, as we need a diverse energy mix in the UK. That will help us to deal with the volatile global energy markets. When will the Government change course and support the UK’s oil and gas industry, including the cluster based in north-east Scotland, and issue new oil and gas licences to help bring down bills for residents across the country and in my constituency?

I direct the hon. Member to the clean power plan, and the analysis done on the way to deliver energy security. We are clear that this is the quickest and best route by which to do that. In the end, one thing guides what we do: the need to get lower bills for the long term. We believe that this is the way to do it. The rest of the system agrees with us, from the regulator through to NESO. Our job is to crack on and deliver that.

I welcome the Minister’s statement, which has practical steps to support people with their bills, and a long-term plan, delivered at speed, to transition to a resilient, sustainable, clean energy system that takes advantage of the incredible advances in renewables in recent years. Offshore wind is providing really low-cost power, underpinned by UK-led innovation in technologies such as hydrogen. The Minister has laid out ambitious plans for supporting households in upgrading their homes, and has made excellent early progress on those upgrades. Will she continue working in partnership with UK innovators and manufacturers to make it not just possible but easy for homeowners to keep their homes warm with dependable, clean and affordable energy?

My hon. Friend is completely right. We are committed to working with industry on upgrading our homes. We believe that that is the way to drive down bills, but we need to make this as easy as possible for consumers across the country. We are working with industry and across the piece to deliver at pace.

I welcome many of the measures in the statement, although I echo the request from my hon. Friend the Member for Bath (Wera Hobhouse) that we consider decoupling electricity and gas prices; that would make such a difference. In 2023, Sutton council was blocked by the opposition Conservative group from partaking of an EU grant to help upgrade some of our council houses to energy performance certificate rating C. I welcome the warm homes social housing fund, but I encourage the Minister and the rest of the Government to increase the amounts available in these funds, so that we reward as often as possible councils that are ambitious to provide better, warmer homes for their residents.

We are committed to working with local and regional government. We are increasing the support provided and are ensuring that it is long-term support, because we agree that the route to insulating lots of homes is through partnerships with local and regional governments, to deliver homes that are warmer and cheaper to run.

Northern Ireland is the only region of this United Kingdom where the warm home discount scheme is not available. Since 2011, the UK Government have failed to grasp this issue. The reason given is that fuel poverty is a devolved issue, but the same can be said of Scotland and Wales. When the price increase in Northern Ireland is announced next week, the assistance will not be available. Will the Minister meet me to discuss this matter? Furthermore, will she open conversations with the Northern Ireland Executive about righting this wrong?

We are reaching out to and working with the Northern Ireland Executive. I would be happy to meet on this issue.

Extending the warm home discount to all households that receive means-tested benefits could make a difference to many, especially those who have not received their winter fuel payment this winter. However, £150 off will not go far enough to help the 56% of adults in Wales likely to ration their energy over the next three months, according to National Energy Action Cymru. With the energy price cap rising again in April, will the Minister admit that we need long-term solutions that ensure energy affordability, such as the social energy tariff, which I have asked for since I came to this House last July, in order to support—

Order.

I agree that we need long-term solutions. That is why we have talked constantly about the clean power mission, and why we are clear that while we make the transition to clean power, we will support the most vulnerable households. As an important first step, we are extending support next winter to over 6 million people who we know are struggling. We will continue to build on that in the weeks and months ahead.