argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Energy Prices — House of Commons, 2015-01-14
Topic: Energy
Andrew John Gwynne (Labour, Centre-left): My right hon. Friend will know that, like all regulators, the energy regulator, Ofgem, has its functions set out in statute—originally, I think, in the Gas Act 1986 and the Electricity Act 1989, as amended by subsequent legislation. Its primary purpose is to protect the interests of the consumer. Consumers’ interests are not being protected because that legislation does not allow the passing on of the cost cuts that my right hon. Friend has highlighted. Is that not precisely why we need to change the law?
Energy Prices — House of Commons, 2015-01-14
Topic: Energy
Robert Charles Douglas Flello (Labour, Centre-left): What my right hon. Friend is saying about the energy companies is absolutely right. We need to intervene, as we do in the case of the fuel companies. Notwithstanding what was said by the hon. Member for Harlow (Robert Halfon), not only are the fuel companies not passing on price cuts at the pumps, but there is a growing disparity between diesel and petrol costs, which is harming many motorists all over the country, and also harming the haulage sector. Why is that happening? We need an inquiry urgently, and we need a regulator to intervene with the fuel companies as well as the gas and electricity companies.
Energy Prices — House of Commons, 2015-01-14
Topic: Energy
Caroline Louise Flint (Labour, Centre-left): My hon. Friend has made an important point. My hon. Friend the Member for Barnsley East (Michael Dugher), the shadow Transport Secretary, has suggested that we should compare what happens in the energy markets that I cover and what happens when it comes to ensuring that our cars and buses can run, along with all other forms of transport that rely on diesel and petrol. At the heart of debates such as this is the issue of how markets work and whether they are competitive enough. I hope we all agree that, in a truly competitive market of any kind, when wholesale costs come down those reductions are passed on to the consumer, but—as others have pointed out—that is clearly not happening now, at least in the markets that I cover.
Energy Prices — House of Commons, 2015-01-14
Topic: Energy
Susan Elan Jones (Labour, Centre-left): Does my hon. Friend agree that one of the Government’s total betrayals has been their failure even to consider requiring Ofgem to regulate oil prices in the first place? When they speak of rural communities they talk about bringing back fox hunting, but what most people in rural communities want are lower energy costs and lower oil prices.
Energy Prices — House of Commons, 2015-01-14
Topic: Energy
Caroline Louise Flint (Labour, Centre-left): I think that in a number of policy areas, the Government are—to put it in a not very academic way—all over the shop. When it comes to energy, they contradict themselves daily, and I can provide the House with evidence of that Our motion raises four questions. First, have wholesale costs fallen, and are they continuing to fall? The answer to both parts of that question is clearly yes. Ofgem—the independent regulator with access to market data—confirms that that is the case. Its most recent estimate suggests that contract prices for the delivery of gas and electricity this winter are, respectively, 17% and 7% lower than they were this time last year. The Government’s own figures also show a fall. In a written parliamentary answer that I was given on 26 November 2014, the Minister for Business and Enterprise revealed that wholesale gas prices had fallen by 20% between November 2013 and November last year, and that wholesale electricity prices had fallen by 9%. Those figures relate to the day-ahead market. Platts, one of the price reporting agencies, thinks that the fall has been even more substantial: its estimates suggest that gas prices fell by 26% last year. On the forward market, in which energy companies are buying and selling energy ahead of time, the fall has been bigger still, with gas prices falling by as much as 30% There can be no doubt that the wholesale prices of both gas and electricity have fallen—not just a little, but quite a lot, and not just in the past few days or weeks, but for a sustained period of more than a year.
Energy Prices — House of Commons, 2015-01-14
Topic: Energy
Caroline Louise Flint (Labour, Centre-left): I will give way shortly That brings us to the second question that the House needs to consider today. Have those savings been passed on to consumers? Yesterday, E.ON announced a price cut of 3.5%. Of course, any cut to anyone’s energy bill is to be welcomed, but E.ON is just one company, and it has cut the price of only one fuel—gas. Electricity prices remain unchanged, and it just so happens that E.ON has more electricity customers than gas customers. Moreover, it has cut its gas price by only 3.5%, which must be set against falls of between 20% and 30% in wholesale gas prices. Even if we allow for the fact that wholesale costs make up only half the energy bill, that suggests that, after cutting its price, E.ON has still pocketed most of the savings from falling wholesale prices. The idea that we are "winning the war on energy bills", as the Secretary of State told The Northern Echo last week, is about as far from reality as the right hon. Gentleman’s chances of becoming leader of his party—much though some of us relish the prospect Some of the energy companies collude with the Government in perpetuating the idea that bills are falling. According to a press release issued on Sunday by Energy UK, the trade association for the energy companies, "Energy suppliers are already passing on price cuts to customers." Apart from E.ON, none of the suppliers—notably the big six, which have millions of "sticky" customers on expensive tariffs—have cut the price of their standard variable tariff, which is the tariff that most people are on. What they are doing is offering cheaper tariffs in order to acquire new customers, but offering cheaper deals to a small number of new customers is completely different from passing on savings to existing customers. The obvious question to be asked is this: if companies can afford to offer cheaper deals—often hundreds of pounds cheaper—to acquire new customers, what is preventing them from reducing bills for the rest of their customers? That is the second fact that we have established this afternoon: wholesale costs have fallen, and the savings have not been passed on to consumers.
Energy Prices — House of Commons, 2015-01-14
Topic: Energy
Caroline Louise Flint (Labour, Centre-left): As I have said in the House before, we will give the regulator a power and a duty to ensure that when wholesale costs fall, it will make the decision—as is only right—to ensure that those reductions are passed on to consumers. I should have thought that the Secretary of State would welcome that. As was pointed out by my hon. Friend the Member for Denton and Reddish (Andrew Gwynne), Ofgem—which I understand the Secretary of State supports—has a duty and a responsibility to protect consumers, and one way of protecting consumers is to ensure that they are paying a fair price for their energy. I see absolute clarity in our policy, but no clarity on the Government Benches That brings me to the third question. This is where things really begin to get interesting. Why have suppliers failed to pass on these savings? A number of different explanations—although they might more accurately be called excuses—have been provided, both by energy companies themselves and by their friends in the Government The first excuse that we have been given is that, because there is a gap between the point at which an energy company buys its energy and the point at which that energy is actually delivered, a company might be buying energy 18 months or a year ahead of time. That is true, but wholesale energy costs have been falling for over a year, so even if companies bought their energy a year or more in advance, bills should still be coming down by now. That explanation simply does not hold.
Energy Prices — House of Commons, 2015-01-14
Topic: Energy
Caroline Louise Flint (Labour, Centre-left): Labour Members certainly agree with that, as do others, including the CBI. Energy should be a managed market. It is different from other things that we may buy, because it is essential to life. It keeps our homes warm, it keeps the lights on, and it keeps our hospitals and our businesses going. In this area it is absolutely clear, and I would have thought there would be some agreement from those on the Government Benches about this, because they have welcomed the CMA review. Why would they welcome a review if they thought everything was hunky-dory? Clearly there is something wrong in the way this market has been working, and that is why we have risen to the challenge to do something about it.
Energy Prices — House of Commons, 2015-01-14
Topic: Energy
Caroline Louise Flint (Labour, Centre-left): The hon. Gentleman has on a number of occasions stood up for consumers where he has concerns about how the energy sector is working. I say this to him: the energy companies have been asked to inform their customers of the cheapest tariff, which is okay, but the truth is that we have the enormous problem of the inherited legacy post-privatisation of a very sticky customer base. That is demonstrated by the fact that the number of people switching is falling, not increasing Let me give the hon. Gentleman an example of another practice that is happening at the moment. It is called white labels, and it is where an energy company—one of the big six—offers through another organisation, maybe a supermarket or another company, a cheaper tariff to people who decide to be customers of that organisation, when it is the energy company providing the staff in the call centres and doing the training behind it, but they do not let their existing customers know what is going on. That is a good example of how they get around the offer they should be making to their existing customers to reflect wholesale cost falls for everyone, not just those whose business they want to acquire.
Energy Prices — House of Commons, 2015-01-14
Topic: Energy
Robert Charles Douglas Flello (Labour, Centre-left): Is my right hon. Friend as astonished as I am, and I am sure almost all my constituents will be, that the Government are trying to defend the energy companies and not trying to defend the poor consumer?
Energy Prices — House of Commons, 2015-01-14
Topic: Energy
Caroline Louise Flint (Labour, Centre-left): I do find that incredible, given that the Chancellor issued a stern warning to the energy companies only last week about their not passing on falls in wholesale cost. I do find it unbelievable that we cannot get a consensus in the House on this issue.
Energy Prices — House of Commons, 2015-01-14
Topic: Energy
Caroline Louise Flint (Labour, Centre-left): I welcome the hon. Gentleman’s support for Labour’s policies in this area, and I hope we can persuade the Scottish National party that the price freeze is a good policy as well and that it should get behind it To inform the hon. Gentleman, the timetable is that the CMA report is due to be completed in December of this year, but an interim report should be forthcoming in June. Our view all along has been that when Labour is in government, we will freeze prices and introduce measures to make sure that the regulator can ensure that wholesale cost reductions are passed on. Also, in tandem with the CMA, we will be issuing further detail of our reforms, which I have to say in some respects the CMA has taken on board, which I welcome The second excuse we have been given is that wholesale costs are only one part of an energy bill. I heard a spokesman for E.ON yesterday refer to "non-energy costs" preventing reductions being passed on, but let us remember that even though there are other costs, wholesale costs are still, as we would expect, the single biggest component of a household energy bill. When the cost of the single biggest component falls by 20% or even 30%, I think the bill should come down, too Let us also not forget that one part of a typical energy bill has been increasing sharply: the profits of these companies. Ofgem’s latest supply market indicators suggest that profit just on the supply of energy—and there is another even bigger profit on generation—has more than doubled from £49 per household in 2013 to over £100 per household today. Energy companies do control that, so that argument does not stand up to scrutiny either.
Energy Prices — House of Commons, 2015-01-14
Topic: Energy
Caroline Louise Flint (Labour, Centre-left): We are making the case, and I refer the hon. Gentleman to the Green Paper we published just before Christmas, in which we made three points in that regard. First, we would make sure that the money levied from the energy companies to help with insulation went to the fuel-poor, taking a bottom-up rather than top-down approach to delivering energy efficiency in our communities. We have said that we should have higher ambitions for the private rented sector in order to make such homes fit for purpose, and that we should get a better deal for those who can afford to pay something, by providing 1 million zero-interest loans during the next Parliament. We have also said that energy efficiency should be a national infrastructure priority. I hope that that clarifies the position for the hon. Gentleman This is about ensuring that we have a policy that is fit for purpose: not just a new power for the regulator, but a new duty to ensure that bills are fair and that reductions in wholesale costs are passed on to consumers. There should also be a price freeze until 2017, so that energy companies cannot simply whack their prices back up after being forced to cut them. We know that wholesale costs have fallen, and that energy companies will not pass on the full saving to all consumers unless they are forced to, so let us give the regulator that power. Let it do the job that people expect it to do, and let us put in place a framework that can begin the process of restoring trust in the broken energy market That is the choice before the House today. Do we carry on with business as usual, with more families with children than ever before unable to afford to heat their homes, and just let the energy companies get away with their usual tactics; or do we call time on the sharp practices and rip-off prices? Do we draw a line in the sand and say "No more"? That is the decision Members will have to make, and account for to their constituents Government Members have had the chance before to take action on energy bills—and have refused to do so. They will not be able to vote against action to make energy companies cut their bills today, and then complain tomorrow that falls in wholesale costs are not being passed on. Let me warn them: much though they might wish it, this debate is not going away. I have it on good authority that the Prime Minister does not want to talk about energy between now and the election, but let me say to him and to the House that that is exactly what this election is about. It is about more than energy prices; it is about how our country is run and whom it is run for. The first, last and most important test to judge any Government by is the level of success for working people in our country—for the many, not the few.
Energy Prices — House of Commons, 2015-01-14
Topic: Energy
Deborah Angela Elspeth Marie Abrahams (Labour, Centre-left): How can the Government justify not passing on the fall in oil prices to customers? Some 8,000 households in my constituency are in fuel poverty, and nearly 3,000 people are accessing food banks. People are choosing between heating and eating. How can the Secretary of State justify not doing anything?
Energy Prices — House of Commons, 2015-01-14
Topic: Macroeconomics
Alan Patrick Vincent Whitehead (Labour, Centre-left): In the Secretary of State’s paean to the coalition’s activities to reduce prices and increase competition, he appears to have forgotten what he has just done in regard to capacity auctions. Will he confirm that the capacity auction that he has just carried out will give £1 billion a year mostly to the big six, and will raise prices to consumers by about 11p? Is he proud of that, in the light of the undertaking to reduce prices that he has given today?
Energy Prices — House of Commons, 2015-01-14
Topic: Energy
Caroline Louise Flint (Labour, Centre-left): Would the Secretary of State admit that Ofgem believes the situation to be getting worse? Even if people are switching, which is welcome, their numbers are falling. Does he agree that it is only those who switch who are getting the benefit of new tariffs? What does he say to the many more customers who are on tariffs that provide no benefit as a result of the fall in wholesale prices?
Energy Prices — House of Commons, 2015-01-14
Topic: Energy
Caroline Louise Flint (Labour, Centre-left): On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. As I said in the House on 2 April 2014 and have done many times since—I reminded the House about this today—the price freeze will stop energy companies increasing their prices but will not stop them cutting them. Therefore I am afraid the Secretary of State’s statements are seriously misleading, albeit unintentionally, I am sure. Can you tell me how he can correct the record?
Energy Prices — House of Commons, 2015-01-14
Topic: Energy
Caroline Louise Flint (Labour, Centre-left): Perhaps, as we are quoting from journalists in the press, the Secretary of State will want to comment on what the energy editor of The Daily Telegraph tweeted today. She said: "To be fair to Labour, heard them say energy ‘freeze’ is ‘cap’ many times." This morning, the Financial Times stated that "the Government is still in disarray over how to respond to Labour’s campaign for lower energy prices." Perhaps the Secretary of State would like to comment on those reports.
Energy Prices — House of Commons, 2015-01-14
Topic: Energy
Peter Hain (Labour, Centre-left): I thank the Secretary of State for his revelation that The Sun is now the house journal of the Liberal Democrats. It does him and the Government no credit that their attitude to Labour’s price freeze has veered wildly, initially denouncing it as Marxist, which was a revelation to all Marxist disciples, and now misrepresenting it with a patronising approach that belies the fact that my right hon. Friend the Member for Don Valley (Caroline Flint) and the leader of the Labour party have been proved right all along on this policy, as they will be proved right in the future One of the best vehicles for keeping energy prices low is the Severn barrage. This huge infrastructure investment boost makes the Severn barrage a no brainer, not least because it requires no Treasury funding. The £25 billion construction cost will be financed entirely privately, mainly from sovereign wealth funds and other large-scale institutional investors, because they would have a guaranteed revenue stream over a period of 120 years or more. The project will create 20,000 jobs during its nine-year build, and with multiplier effects another 30,000 jobs, making a total of 50,000 jobs and a £70 billion boost to the economy. Many of the jobs will be located in communities in south Wales and the south-west of England, which are crying out for such a boost of investment and high-skilled jobs. Some 80% of the spend will be in the United Kingdom, unlike wind power where 80% is spent abroad because countries such as Germany and Norway have stolen the lead on wind turbine manufacture. The scheme would harness one of the world’s largest potential sources of renewable energy: the huge tidal range of the Severn estuary—the second highest in the world. Building an 18-kilometre barrage between Brean in England and Lavernock Point in Wales would be one of the world’s largest privately funded global engineering projects.
Energy Prices — House of Commons, 2015-01-14
Topic: Energy
Dawn Primarolo (Labour, Centre-left): Order. I must reluctantly intervene on the right hon. Gentleman. This debate is about energy prices, not energy generation from things like the barrage. He needs to relate his comments to the impact on energy prices and passing on reductions to the consumer.
Energy Prices — House of Commons, 2015-01-14
Topic: Energy
Peter Hain (Labour, Centre-left): I was about to do that, but I need—obviously with your permission, Madam Deputy Speaker—to describe the project in order to do so Most importantly, the barrage would produce the cheapest electricity in the United Kingdom—half the cost of alternative sources such as gas, nuclear and coal, as well as other renewables. Previous consortia interested in the project have looked to a period of consumer subsidy lasting less than 25% of its life—very small compared with other renewables. After that initial subsidy period, promoted by previous consortia backing the barrage, it would generate electricity at £20 per MWh for at least a century, less than half the wholesale market price that the economy has been used to The latest project backer does not want the consumer subsidy of contracts for difference, a point which I hope the Secretary of State will note. In meetings with him, I have discussed support for the barrage, which he has not been able to give. The barrage has attracted widespread criticism from wildlife groups, but it has considerable other benefits, including low electricity prices over its entire life if the current project is taken forward in this way. In addition, it would have other important effects on the economy. The 1,026 turbines required, each the weight of a jumbo jet, would be built at two factories in the region, most probably at Port Talbot and Bristol. The planned caisson-casting yard at Port Talbot deep-water docks could afterwards be converted into a port for ultra-large container ships. It would also enable us not just to keep prices low, but to export the technology and expertise in tidal barrage construction around the world. So it would keep prices low, which consumers desperately need, and it would support flood protection. Some 90,000 properties and 500 square kilometres of Wales and the south-west, including the Somerset levels, would be supported, and it would act as a barrier against storm surges. Therefore, prices would be kept low and there would be many other benefits from the project In conclusion, this is the biggest single investment project coming from the private sector, needing no consumer subsidy at all in contracts for difference, according to the latest backer of the project, which I hope the Government will meet. I hope that people will see this as something that should have been backed already, and that now all parties will back it as a—
Energy Prices — House of Commons, 2015-01-14
Topic: Energy
Albert Owen (Labour, Centre-left): My first job was as a galley boy on an oil tanker in the middle east, so I know a little bit about oil from a different perspective from the right hon. Gentleman’s. He says people are ignorant of the facts. Does he agree with the Prime Minister, who said that the best way to deal with the issue is to "give the regulator the teeth to order that those reductions are made" Those were the words of the Prime Minister. Is he criticising us for repeating what the Prime Minister said? Does he agree with the leader of his party?
Energy Prices — House of Commons, 2015-01-14
Topic: Energy
Alan Patrick Vincent Whitehead (Labour, Centre-left): The hon. Gentleman presents a bit of a puzzle. How does he explain his own Government’s recently rolled out policy of putting 11p on everybody’s bills precisely to generate more power for consumers from gas and coal? It has nothing to do with climate change; it is just an 11p increase in people’s bills.