§ 8. Mr. Mike Thomasasked the Secretary of State for Energy whether he will seek powers to compel the electricity, gas and coal industries to participate in the Government's price restraint scheme.
§ Mr. BennNo, Sir. Electricity tariffs could not be brought within the scheme without substantial public subvention. Coal prices are exempt from statutory control because of British membership of the European Community. The British Gas Corporation is voluntarily participating in the scheme in respect of domestic gas tariffs.
§ Mr. ThomasIs my right hon. Friend aware that the Chairman of the Electricity Council recently told the Select Committee on Nationalised Industries that he had not even been asked to enter into this scheme? Is it not a remarkable state of affairs that in many cases electricity prices have doubled over the past 12 months and a 16 per cent. increase is in train, while a wide range of private enterprise companies are willing to enter into arrangements with my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Prices and Consumer Protection?
§ Mr. BennWe considered the position of the coal and electricity industries seriously, but we concluded that they could not be brought in without jeopardising their own finances. The position is that the area boards have put in for increases to take account of higher prices, including higher oil prices.
§ Mr. RostIs not the real problem for millions of those least able to afford it that they are having to pay far more for their fuel bills than they need to pay because they are entombed in local authority housing which has been inadequately thermally insulated and they have an electric heating system which is uneconomic and inefficient?
§ Mr. BennI think the hon. Gentleman is right in saying that one of the difficulties of energy policy is that the alleged free market choice in energy is limited by the fact that people are in buildings which are not properly insulated and that they have appliances and heating systems which they did not choose. In answer to a Written Question today I am trying to set out the Government's new approach to energy policy to take account of those factors that it will take us some time to put right.
§ Mr. PalmerDoes my right hon. Friend agree that the present price of gas is extremely artificial?
§ Mr. BennMy hon. Friend knows the fuel industries very well. He will also know that one reason why gas is cheaper, relative to electricity and coal, is that the British Gas Gorporation struck a tough balance with the oil companies, and our price legislation provides that gas prices are to be related to allowable costs and not based on a comparability arrangement. In looking at long-term energy policy—which I am doing—I am bound to take into account all sorts of inheritances from the past, and the House, the Government and the community must think about that if they are to make sense of difficult investment decisions.