Energy Costs: Businesses

We know that the cost of energy is a huge challenge to businesses across the country. That is why our mission to deliver clean power by 2030 is so important: that is how we will get bills down for good. While we try to get there, we are taking action to support businesses, including through the new British industrial competitiveness scheme, which will reduce electricity costs by around 20% to 25% for more than 7,000 businesses.

When the Government help businesses reduce energy costs, including by aiding their transition, businesses such as the pubs and cafés in Dawley, Madeley and Oakengates and manufacturers on Stafford Park and Halesfield can then protect and create jobs and pass on savings to customers. Will the Government back those businesses and ask the energy giants, which continue to make tens of billions of pounds of profit, to pay for it?

My hon. Friend is completely right to stress the challenges faced by businesses. The Government are committed to backing businesses. We are working with the regulator to make sure that the system is fair for everyone and, as is set out in our industrial strategy, from 2027 the new British industrial competitiveness scheme will reduce electricity costs by up to £40 per megawatt-hour, which will benefit thousands of electricity-intensive industries, including the ones in his constituency. We are very clear that we are backing businesses, and we will do everything we can to support them in driving down bills.

Energy costs are an issue that the Prax oil refinery has brought to my attention over the years as a problem it has been facing. I appreciate the calls I have had with the Minister for Energy about this. I was able to visit the plant on Friday, and there was clearly growing concern, with hundreds of jobs at risk. What assurance can the Minister offer my constituents who are affected by this situation?

The hon. Member is right to raise this situation; we know that it is very difficult, and we have been engaging on it. There have been long-standing issues with how the plant is run. We are trying, across the piece, to support businesses to make the transition—and support them within the transition—so that we can protect jobs across the country.

I call the shadow Minister.

When the price cap fell last month, the Labour party boasted, “£129 off your bills, delivered by Labour”. The Minister knows that energy bills fell as wholesale gas prices fell, and she knows that her policy is to take the country off gas and keep increasing policy costs on bills. That is why she refuses to repeat the claim. Will she take this opportunity to apologise for her party saying something that she knows is untrue?

Every time the hon. Member stands up to speak, I hold my head in absolute frustration. He is gambling with fossil fuels, and quite frankly the Conservatives should hang their heads in shame. Energy bills rocketed under their watch and they did nothing about it—they were happy with that. That is not a legacy that we are willing to contend with, which is why we are taking action in the short term to drive down bills through our sprint to clean power. Their legacy is one they should be ashamed of, so they should not be lecturing us.