VerbatimParliament, as it happens

Energy: Prices

Asked by Tracy GilbertLabourDepartment for Energy Security and Net ZeroTabled Answered 4 November 2024UIN 11368

The question

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether he plans to regulate non-domestic energy prices.

Answered by Miatta Fahnbulleh

The Government does not currently have plans to introduce an energy price cap for non-domestic energy consumers.

The Government believes the only way to protect billpayers permanently, including non-domestic organisations, is to speed up the transition away from fossil fuels and towards homegrown clean energy. The creation of Great British Energy will help us to harness clean energy and have less reliance on volatile international energy markets and help in our commitment to make Britain a clean energy superpower by 2030.

From 19 December we are expanding the remit of the Energy Ombudsman services so that small business consumers with fewer than 50 employees can resolve issues with their supplier through this service. This expands the level of support to 99% of businesses in Great Britain. In September we also launched a public consultation on regulating Third Party Intermediaries for non-domestic consumers, seeking views on different potential regulatory options for this market.

Heat network consumers are not currently protected by the energy price cap, that is why the Government is introducing regulations to give them comparable protections that existing gas and electricity regulations provide. We are appointing Ofgem as heat network regulator who will have the power to intervene if prices appear to be disproportionate or unfair.

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