It is a great pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Crausby. In these very difficult economic times, households up and down the UK are struggling with the cost of living, and of all the bills that darken kitchen tables from Aberdeen to Axminster, energy bills are hitting many the hardest.
Rightly, the Government are taking action to help. Following my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister’s commitment to bringing down energy bills, Ofgem—the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets—is introducing a package of measures to reduce bills, improve consumer advice and improve regulation, but, however welcome those changes are, their scope extends only as far as the limits of the mains gas grid. Beyond the flicker of the grid lie millions of households that are at risk of being left in darkness as energy reforms come into force. Those households, unable to access gas from the grid, rely on alternative energy sources, including heating oil, liquefied petroleum gas, electricity and solid fuels. If we are serious about helping people who are struggling with the cost of energy, we must ensure that there is parity between mains gas and off-grid households.