I pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Truro and Falmouth (Sarah Newton) for securing this debate. As the hon. Member for Angus (Mr Weir) said, it has been oft-repeated. It is none the worse for that, but progress is pitifully slow. I am sure that constituents throughout the UK who are represented by hon. Members across this Chamber must feel that their cause has not been addressed by this Government or, indeed, by previous ones.
I want to raise several issues, on the first of which some progress has been made. My predecessor, Richard Livsey, pressed the Office of Fair Trading to conduct an inquiry into the supply of LPG for many years, but I was the Member for Brecon and Radnorshire when that
inquiry was completed and a report made. It gave customers greater flexibility in being able to compare prices from various suppliers. Until then, they had to change the bulk tank when they changed suppliers, and the complexity and expense of doing so meant that changing suppliers was very difficult.
There have been incredibly good examples of communities coming together to form purchaser groups that can negotiate more strongly with suppliers. Certainly, the little community of Llanspyddid in my constituency has achieved that, although again—we have heard this message from hon. Members—the tariffs proposed by suppliers were so complicated that it was difficult for consumers to come to a conclusion and they needed help to evaluate suppliers’ proposals. That is nevertheless a good example of how the consumer can be more powerful in the market, given the right conditions.
I say to the Minister that those people need support to get groups together. A document has been produced on good practice for consumer groups in the energy market, but the Department of Energy and Climate Change could certainly do more to ensure that LPG consumers know that they can have competitive tenders from different suppliers. I often talk to LPG consumers who still do not understand what can be done, and there should certainly be a public information campaign to enable people to benefit more from that.