§ 6. Mr. Newensasked the Secretary of State for Energy if the number of households to which the supply of electricity has been cut off owing to financial difficulties is increasing.
§ Dr. John A. CunninghamA direct comparison cannot be made between the number of consumers disconnected in the present financial year and those for earlier years, since in April the Electricity Council adopted a new basis for collection of this information which excludes figures other than those relating to domestic premises in regular occupation. However, its retrospective estimates suggest that the number of disconnections in the first six months of 1976–77 may be some 7 per cent. below the corresponding number for the same period of 1975–76.
§ Mr. NewensAlthough I recognise the efforts that have been made by my hon. Friend and his colleagues to persuade the electricity authorities to adopt a more 10 sympathetic approach to low-income families who are dependent upon electricity for heating and cooking, may I ask him to impress upon the authorities the necessity of being more willing to install prepayment slot meters—after all, in the end bills must be paid—to enable families to avoid the tremendous hardship that is imposed upon them when they are cut off? Is there some difficulty about the manufacture of slot meters? Will my hon. Friend take action? Will he look into my suggestion of encouraging the authorities to install prepayment meters?
§ Dr. CunninghamI am grateful to my hon. Friend for his kind remarks and constructive suggestion. As he is aware, the code of practice states specifically that all forms of payment methods suggested in the payments review should become available. That applies to both gas and electricity boards. There is specific reference to prepayment meters. It is specifically outlined in the code of practice that they can be made availble where they are safe and practical to install. If my hon. Friend has in mind a case of difficulty concerning this aspect of prepayment meters, if he cares to write to me about it I shall be pleased to consider it.
§ Mr. Hall-DavisDoes the Minister accept that one of the problems is that the majority of people are still unaware of the facilities for budget or instalment meters to spread the payment of their heating charges? Is not the problem aggravated by the fact that different boards have been offering different facilities? Does the Minister regard it as a departmental responsibility to hammer home the alternatives? Does he accept that the present severe winter will cause aggravated problems for many families?
§ Dr. CunninghamThere is some truth in what the hon. Gentleman says about people not being fully aware of the alternative methods of payment that are available. We have been at great pains, as have the industries themselves, to draw attention to these methods. This has been done through the industries' own advertising and through the publication of the code of practice, which is now freely available to all consumers. We take very much to heart the point that the hon. 11 Gentleman has made. Much work is going into bringing home to consumers information on the alternative methods of payment.