---

Energy Prices

It is always a great pleasure and honour to follow the right hon. Member for Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill (Mr Clarke), whose defence of his constituents is always reasonable and valiant. I think he is right to this extent—that appealing to people to switch supplier will not be the entire cure for problems in the energy market. The reason for that is that the energy market is broken, so competition will not work entirely. It can work to a certain extent, but not entirely, if the market cannot deliver what the consumer wants. To understand how to fix the market, we have to look at the history of the market and why it went wrong. If we look at energy prices, we find that they have moved since the privatisation of the late '80s. They fell consistently beneath the retail prices index every year from the late '80s and the early 2000s. They did so over a longer period than at any time since records of energy prices began. Then, from the mid-2000s they levelled out, and from 2005 to 2007 they increased further than RPI until 2010 when the last Government left office. I am fully aware that this is often not a moment to talk about the previous Government's record, but they had a fundamental hand to play in the reasons why we are in the position we are in now. It is also incumbent on us to point out that much of the responsibility lies with the man whose name stands at the head of the motion who seeks to lead the British public as Prime Minister after the next election. He is responsible for the complete lack of action taken to do anything about the broken energy market, which has caused the problems from which our constituents, including those of the right hon. Member for Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill, suffer today. In a debate earlier in the Session, the right hon. Member for Don Valley (Caroline Flint)—who is now shouting from a sedentary position—said that reform of the electricity market was"““what my right hon. Friend the Member for Doncaster North (Edward Miliband) has been calling for ever since he was Energy Secretary, including now, as leader of the Labour party.””—[Official Report, 19 October 2011; Vol. 533, c. 931.]" A Secretary of State does not call for a reform of the energy market, or of the electricity market. The right hon. Gentleman's purpose should have been to do something about the situation, but far from doing something about it—or even calling for something to be done about it—he issued the following warning to the then Opposition Front Bench during a 2009 debate on the Energy Bill:"““I have to say that the alarmism... is of no help at all.””—[Official Report, 7 December 2009; Vol. 502, c. 43.]" It was not alarmism, however. We understood that the market was broken, and we understood that fundamental changes were needed. That is why it is we who are introducing the changes that need to be made now that we are in power. My first problem with the proposals in the motion is that they do not have the agreement of even small energy providers, who say that the right hon. Lady's pooling mechanism would not work.