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Energy Providers

I do not propose to speak for long this afternoon, as I have secured an Adjournment debate on a similar subject tomorrow. I have called the debate on behalf of my constituents, Michelle and six-year-old Jayden, who had their gas cut off by Scottish Power in June and who have been left without cooking, heating and hot water for four and a half months. I am concerned that Michelle and Jayden's story is just the tip of the iceberg, and that thousands like them are being treated just as badly by the energy providers. I am pleased that this has been chosen as the subject for today's topical debate, because it enables us to raise an important principle: should people like Michelle and Jayden be left in the cold when they have no chance of paying what the utility companies demand of them? I do not intend today to go into how they got into arrears, but Scottish Power has been charging them an incredibly high amount for their gas: £75 a month for a small, two-bedroomed housing association flat. That seems like a very high tariff to me. We all know that people on low incomes are rarely on the most generous tariff. This has been a cause of real concern, and the Government need to do more—in line with today's statement and the meeting with the companies yesterday—to stop the poorest being charged the most. As I am sure everyone in the Chamber today knows, prepayment meters penalise people heavily. Ofgem says that people who use them pay £125 more than people who pay by direct debit. However, Michelle and Jayden are in such a bad position that they actually want a prepayment meter so that they can cook a meal, have a bath and heat their front room. But Scottish Power says no. It says that it cannot do it, and that Michelle needs to have extra pipework done in order to install a prepayment meter, and that that is not its responsibility. Scottish Power says that it is the responsibility of another utility company, Southern Gas Networks. Southern Gas Networks says, ““Fine, we'll do the work, but it will cost £350.”” And, after all that, Michelle is going to have to pay a CORGI-registered engineer even more to fit the meter. So, even though Michelle is in great need, she has been told that she has to pay for everything. That cannot be right. Not only are the utility companies ripping off our least affluent constituents by charging high tariffs, but they are trying to get them to pay hundreds of pounds for the privilege of having a prepayment meter that no one here today would want, and I am told that all this is legal. Scottish Power does not seem to be particularly bothered. Its best effort to justify its behaviour has been to tell me that it did not know that Michelle was on income support, or that Jayden was six and that he lived in the same house as his mum. It also says that it has not been able to get through to Michelle, but, to be fair to her, every time I have called her, she has answered my calls quickly and has always been prepared to provide even the most uncomfortable information. Just yesterday, Scottish Power admitted that Michelle had called it on numerous occasions, although until then, it was adamant that it did not know about her circumstances and that she had refused to return its calls. From my experience of Scottish Power, I can easily believe that it would not have asked her about her circumstances. I wonder whether the Government would consider ensuring that questions about people's circumstances were legitimately asked, and that it could be proved that they had been asked. I want the Government to do something about companies such as Scottish Power, which now knows everything about my constituents but still refuses to budge. It still wants Michelle and Jayden to pay hundreds of pounds that they clearly do not have, for a meter that none of us would ever want. I will go into more detail in the Adjournment debate tomorrow. This practice is simply not right. It might be legal, but none of us would regard it as right to leave a family without hot water, heating or cooked food for four and a half months, and into the long-term future. Trying to charge Michelle around £500 for a new meter that she cannot afford is not right. I do hope that Ministers will listen to this debate and reflect on this story. The utility companies spend an enormous amount on public affairs. Scottish Power is part of a company that made profits of €200 million last year. I hope that it will reflect for a moment on what it would be like to be my constituents. It is time that the utility companies learned the importance not only of talking about social responsibility but of living it.