People's Right to Fuel (Hansard, 26 January 1983)

§ Mr. Dennis Canavan (West Stirlingshire)

I beg to move, That leave be given to bring in a Bill to prevent disconnection of domestic supplies of electricity and gas in cases of hardship; to introduce a statutory code of practice to protect people threatened with such disconnection; to eliminate fuel poverty; and for related purposes. The disconnection of domestic supplies of gas and electricity is a nationwide problem affecting thousands of families, most of whom are on low incomes. We just need to look at the statistics concerning this matter for the 12-month period ending September 1982. During that period, 97,827 domestic electricity consumers had their supplies disconnected. The corresponding figure for gas consumers was 28,193. More up-to-date statistics indicate that today in Scotland alone over 3,000 people have no electricity supply in their homes because it has been cut off by one or other of the Scottish electricity boards. These figures are a national scandal.

It is even worse when we analyse the circumstances of the people involved. The Policy Studies Institute estimates that 90 per cent. of people who suffer disconnection are specifically mentioned as special categories in the existing code of practice. These special categories include recipients of supplementary benefit, family income supplement and unemployment benefit and old-age pensioners, the blind, the severely sick, the disabled and families with young children under the age of 11.

Recently, the case of a constituent who is a single parent with a baby in the house was brought to my attention. The electricity supply was cut off when she was out of the house. She returned to discover that she had been left with no supply for heating, lighting or cooking. On my intervention the electricity board reconnected the supply the same day, but the point is that the supply should never have been cut off.

I had details of another case, documented by Strathclyde regional council, of a landlord with four sub-tenants operating prepayment meters for their electricity supply. A bill of £770 had accrued, but the landlord could not be found. The supply was disconnected in breach of the code, leaving three pensioners and one student without lighting or electrical facilities. One pensioner died before the supply was reconnected on a Tuesday, following disconnection the previous Friday, when the attention of the South of Scotland Electricity Board was drawn to the fact that the code of practice is supposed to prevent the disconnection of tenants for debts incurred by the landlord.

It seems, therefore, that the existing voluntary code is inadequate and that deserving cases need statutory protection. My Bill proposes a statutory code of practice. Under no circumstances would disconnection be allowed by an electricity or gas board unless it had a court order. If I may draw a parallel with housing, no landlord or local authority may evict a tenant unless there is a court order. Why on earth should people not have the same kind of rights with regard to fuel supply?

The Bill also proposes that there should be statutory liaison between fuel boards and the Department of Health and Social Security and local authority social work departments to identify people with special needs who are faced with the possibility of disconnection and to give appropriate advice where necessary, for example, on 912 repayment by instalment. There is advice in the existing code for consultation, but I want statutory liaison, because there are cases where people have been disconnected because of a lack of adequate communication.

I also propose an extension of the existing fuel direct scheme. Only people receiving supplementary benefit are able to take advantage of the present scheme whereby, if they wish, their fuel can be paid for direct by deductions from their weekly benefits. This scheme should be extended to people receiving other kinds of DHSS benefit such as sickness benefit, invalidity benefit, unemployment benefit and so on. I should also like an extension of the provision of prepayment meters. At times, electricity boards, and possibly gas boards too, appear to be reluctant to install prepayment meters. Consumers should be given the right to have prepayment meters if they want them unless there are compelling circumstances, by reason of safety, for example, that would dictate otherwise.

My Bill also proposes to tackle one of the root causes of disconnection—fuel poverty—by introducing a fuel allowance for people threatened with hardship. At present, people in receipt of supplementary benefit may qualify, but not necessarily, for an additional heating allowance, but it is normally only £1.90 per week. What can anyone do with that? It would not buy even half a bag of coal. It would not go far towards heating a house by gas, electricity or any other means. The fuel allowance should be linked to the existing housing benefit to avoid the need for yet another means test and also to ensure at the same time that help goes to those most in need. The exact amount of the fuel allowance would depend on the financial and domestic circumstances of the consumer and also on the climate of the area of residence.

Recently, Professor Markus did a study which showed that it takes 20 per cent. more fuel to heat a house in Glasgow than to heat a comparable house in the south of England. The corresponding figure for Aberdeen is 30 per cent. That might partly explain why the number of disconnections per head of population in Scotland is greater than in the rest of the United Kingdom, but I suspect that this is also due partly to the draconian attitude of the South of Scotland Electricity Board.

Not long ago the Supplementary Benefits Commission inspectorate found that many pensioners were unduly restricting their heating because of worry about the cost. Another report found that 55 per cent. of people over the age of 65 had morning living-room temperatures of less than 61 deg F, which is the minimum specified for offices in the Offices, Shops and Railway Premises Act 1963. Such people, therefore, run the risk of hypothermia.

These reports are a sad reflection on our society and we ought to be thoroughly ashamed of the fact that such a situation is tolerated. I therefore ask the House to support my Bill, which is a charter to eliminate fuel poverty and is designed to stop unnecessary disconnections that cause misery, hardship and health risks to thousands of families.