The petition of residents of Birmingham, Edgbaston, including Harborne, Quinton and Bartley Green.
Declares that the cost of living has reached crisis point, with the consequence being an increase in homelessness and fellow constituents being left to go cold and hungry.
The petitioners therefore request the House of Commons to urge the Government to take urgent action that will see:
1. An extension of the windfall tax to cover the costs of capping energy rates to stop bills going up this winter.
2.Insulate homes to help families save money on their energy bills now and in the long-term.
3. Support homeowners to protect their homes by bringing interest rates down on mortgages.
4. Protect those who pay rent to ensure a sudden spike in rent prices does not lead to an increase in homelessness.
And the petitioners remain etc.
—[Presented by Preet Kaur Gill, Official Report, 14 March 2023; Vol. 729, c. 802 .]
[P002806]
Observations from The Chief Secretary to the Treasury (John Glen):
The Government thank the hon. Member for Birmingham Edgbaston Preet Kaur Gill MP, for submitting the petition alongside the corresponding online petition.
The Government understand that people across the UK are worried about the cost of living and recognise the challenges facing households. That is why decisive action has been taken to support households across the UK, while remaining fiscally responsible.
The spring Budget 2023 goes further to protect struggling families and help with high energy bills. The Government are extending energy support by keeping the energy price guarantee at £2,500 for the next three months from April, saving households an additional £160, bringing total Government support for energy bills to £1,500 for a typical household since October 2022. Alongside this, further steps are being taken to support households with energy bills by ending the premium paid by over 4 million households using prepayment meters across the UK and cancelling the planned increase in fuel duty and keeping rates at current levels for the next 12 months. The Government are also developing a new approach to energy consumer protection from April 2024, including consideration of a social tariff.
This is in addition to the support the Government announced at autumn statement including new cost of living payments in 2023-24, helping more than 8 million UK households on eligible means tested benefits, 8 million pensioner households and 6 million people across the UK on eligible disability benefits. The Government are also protecting the most vulnerable in society, many of whom face the biggest challenge in making their incomes stretch, by increasing benefits in line with inflation. We are also allocating an additional £1 billion for the household support fund to help with the cost of household essentials including food, energy, and water bills, bringing total funding for this support to £2.5 billion since October 2021.
Taking all these actions together, Government support to households to help with higher bills is worth £94 billion across 2022-23 and 2023-24.
The petitioners have called for an extension of the windfall tax to cover the costs of capping energy rates. At autumn statement 2022, the Chancellor increased the energy profits levy from 25% to 35%, bringing the headline tax rate for the oil and gas sector to 75%, one of the highest rates globally. The levy was also extended until March 2028.
The Office for Budget Responsibility expect the EPL to raise just under £26 billion between 2022-23 and 2027-28. This significant source of tax revenue has already helped fund vital cost of living support, including the energy price guarantee on household energy bills and additional support for those most in need. Revenues from the levy are on top of around £25 billion in tax receipts from the oil and gas sector over the same period through the permanent tax regime. This reform alongside the new tax on electricity generators also announced at autumn statement ensures that energy companies contribute to the UK’s collective efforts to strengthen public finances, and fund cost of living support and public services.
The petitioners have called for a nationwide programme to insulate homes. The Government recently announced a new long-term commitment to drive improvements in energy efficiency to bring down bills for households, businesses and the public sector with an ambition to reduce the UK’s final energy consumption from buildings and industry by 15% by 2030 against 2021 levels. Some £6 billion of new Government funding will be made available from 2025 to 2028, in addition to £6.6 billion allocated this Parliament.