Islwyn MP Chris Evans has said people are suffering with high energy prices.
Mr Evans spoke in a debate yesterday in the House of Commons and highlighted a newspaper story which claimed that 13 pensioners an hour died of cold-related illnesses last year. The number of older people dying from incidences of hypothermia has also doubled.
He said: “There has to be a radical reform of our energy market. It is no good going on with only six companies buying in and selling energy. I have talked before about having a central energy supplier to buy energy at a fixed rate and then to sell it to whichever companies want to buy it, so that we can bring more people into the market.
“We must talk in the here and now, and we have the draft Energy Bill. Co-operative and community energy programmes have raised massive concerns about the Bill, and I hope that the Government will listen to them. Which? has said that the Big Switch campaign was the best of its type, but there is still more that we need to do.
“A constituent came to see me last Friday and produced a bill from SWALEC. I looked at it and could not understand it. A member of my staff who worked for SWALEC for a number of years looked at it, and he said he could not understand it.
“Other people looked at it, and they could not understand it. I have read in Which? that a chartered accountant has looked at his own energy bill and not been able to understand it. What chance do elderly people and the most vulnerable in our society have of switching when they cannot understand their bills?
“I spoke to my member of staff who had worked for SWALEC and said that I would have just offered it a £50 ex gratia payment to go away. That seems to be the way forward for the energy companies. When I looked at that bill, the most amazing thing that I saw was a £15 charge for being a low user. SWALEC was charging my constituent for using less energy. It is crazy.”
One, rarely mentioned, reason for high energy prices is the levy of VAT on all fuels. This was introduced by the Tory government and was reduced by Labour to 5%. It apparently cannot be abolished, as it should, because we are a slave to European rules which say that once VAT is levied on an item it cannot be removed.
This means that membership of the European Union means that we pay 5% on top of our already high gas and electricity prices. Perhaps someone who is pro-europe would like to comment on 'Caerphilly Observer' and explain why this is a good thing.