Fuel Pricing (Low-tariff Consumers) (Hansard, 16 February 1976)

§ 14. Mr. Hannam
asked the Secretary of State for Energy if he will hold consultations with the CEGB and the Gas Council concerning the effect of fuel pricing policies on low-tariff consumers.

§ Mr. Benn
I keep in contact as appropriate with the gas and electricity industries about all important matters of pricing policy.

§ Mr. Hannam
Will the Secretary of State discuss with the Chairman of the Gas Council the tilting of tariffs against the small consumer—for example, charging 20p a therm to the consumer of only 100 therms a year, compared with a reduction to something like 12½p per therm for the larger consumer of 1,600 therms?

§ Mr. Benn
As the House knows, the Government asked officials to look into the problems of tariffs and the possibility of tilting tariffs in favour of small consumers. We are publishing the results of those studies—as it happens, they will be published today—and I hope that, when the hon. Member and others who have knowledge and expertise in these matters have an opportunity to look at them, they will see at least the logic which lies behind the Government's thinking. I hope also that the paper which we are publishing today will trigger off some public discussion about these matters, which must be looked at by the Government from time to time. I hope that this will be helpful.

§ Mr. Mike Thomas
My right hon. Friend can take it that many of us welcome his decision to publish material of this sort, but will he at the same time make clear that he is prepared to stand up to the bureaucrats in these nationalised industries on behalf of the voters who pay the bills and who put him here?

§ Mr. Benn
If it were as simple as that, energy policy would be very simple. When he looks at the arguments, my hon. Friend will, I think, find—this will emerge from the study published today—that, for example, not all poor consumers are small consumers——

§ Mr. Mike Thomas
Most are.

§ Mr. Benn
If he looks at the paper which we are publishing, I think that my hon. Friend will find that it would be possible to take a penny or two off the tariffs of some poor consumers but at the expense of a very substantial increase for those who live in all-electric homes. This is a more complex matter than my hon. Friend may yet recognise, and, although I should welcome his comments, since the Government always have an open mind on all these matters, I think that he should see the figures before reaching a final view.

§ Mr. Heffer
Will my right hon. Friend reconsider the matter from the point of view of those living in all-electric homes? In my constituency, for example, I am finding old people with bills of about £150 a quarter, which is far too high. When the material is published, will the Government follow it up by taking action to assist consumers of that kind in particular, who are really in a very bad way?

§ Mr. Benn
I said in an earlier answer, and I say again to my hon. Friend now, that these are difficult questions because people do not always have control over the fuel which they burn since they are put into flats where there is only one fuel available to them. I shall be making a statement at the end of Question Time today dealing with one aspect of this matter. But I think that the adjustment to higher tariffs which flowed from the OPEC increases is an inevitable difficulty, and we are trying to look at the problems as they develop with a reasonable degree of good will and sensitivity.