§ 15. Mr. Sorensenasked the President of the Board of Trade whether he has any proposals to deal with the grievances of domestic consumers of electricity who respond to the appeal to economise in electricity consumption but have to pay the balance between the charge for the actual amount of electricity consumed and the minimum charge imposed by electricity undertakings, and are thus involved in expenditure incommensurate with the service rendered?
§ The President of the Board of Trade (Sir Andrew Duncan)I would refer the hon. Member to the reply given to my hon. and gallant Friend the Member for 184 East Leicester (Major Lyons) on 16th October last. I am not aware that the services rendered by electricity undertakings are incommensurate with the authorised minimum charges which consumers may be required to pay. If, however, the hon. Member will bring to my notice any particular case in which the minimum charge is considered to be excessive, I shall be pleased to inquire into it.
§ Mr. SorensenIs the right hon. Gentleman aware that, in fact, many complaints have been addressed to the local authorities precisely on this issue; in other words, numbers of consumers of electricity are complaining about paying more for consuming less?
§ Sir A. DuncanNo, Sir, I am not aware of that. If the hon. Gentleman will give me particulars, I will look into them.