Labour is taking action to help shield households in Chesterfield and across the country from rising energy prices, after urging from Toby Perkins, MP for Chesterfield.
In the face of volatile gas prices due to the war in Iran, this Government has announced action which will help break the link between gas and electricity prices, protecting energy bills at home from events abroad.
Toby Perkins, MP for Chesterfield, said: “Whilst Keir Starmer has rightly kept Britain out of Trump’s war in Iran, people in Chesterfield and across the country are still feeling the cost of this war.
I welcome the announcement which will help break our dependence on, and protect households from, volatile gas prices, keeping energy prices down for households.”
Toby wrote to the Energy Secretary just last month asking him to take action on this issue. The Environmental Audit Committee, which Toby chairs, also recommended the Government take action to bring down electricity prices, both to shield energy bills and to promote the uptake of clean electric technologies.
Over time, this problem is easing as new clean energy projects are built on fixed price contracts that protect consumers from gas price volatility. But a significant share of renewable generation – about 30% of Britain’s power supply – is still exposed to wholesale prices set by gas, leaving families vulnerable when international prices rise.
Therefore, to shield families from future crises, the Government has set out new measures to ‘break the link’, reducing the impact that volatile gas prices have on the price of electricity.
More widely, Labour’s broader drive towards homegrown clean power means that gas was estimated to set the wholesale price around half of the time by 2030, and now due to these changes, gas will only set the wholesale price around 40% of the time by 2030 (compared to 90% of the time in the early 2020s).
The Energy Secretary also announced measures to help cut bills for families and deliver more clean, homegrown power. Including bigger grants for households on heat oil and LPG who have been impacted the most by the crisis in the Middle East, faster insulation upgrades for social housing, and more solar panels for schools and colleges.