There are two causes with deadlines coming up - both on Friday January 19th. The first relates to the standing charge on your electricity or gas supply. The unit price of your energy has reduced dramatically from its peak, but energy companies have hiked the standing charge. I’ve met with businesses that are paying £6 per day per meter and the domestic standing charge is significantly higher than it was. I think this is a disgrace, not least because households are taking steps to reduce energy consumption but are trapped into paying high standing charges. I have repeatedly raised the issue with Ministers, who say it's a matter for Ofgem. Working with colleagues we took on the Ofgem CEO who has now launched an internal investigation into the charges. You can find full details here: https://tinyurl.com/ofgeminput
Write to Ofgem at [email protected] and click on this link to show your support. www.derekthomas.org/StopTheRipOff
The second is much more positive. Pubs make an important contribution to the local community. I’m not a great drinker but pubs have proved to be useful venues for my ‘MP drop-ins’ and, charity quizzes, OAP lunches, fundraising events, the Sunday roast etc are all examples of the service pubs provide. The Pub Awards seek to recognise this, and patrons have the opportunity to nominate their local pub in the following categories: Community Support Hero - celebrating a pub that truly supports its local area, Community Fundraising Hero – awarded to the pub that raises money for charity! Community Regular Hero – awarded to an individual who goes above and beyond! Community Sport Hero - recognising a pub that truly supports grassroots sport in its area or brings the community together via sporting events! Community Sustainability Hero - recognising the efforts of a pub going above and beyond in terms of helping to protect the environment locally. I’d love to get some of our local pubs shortlisted in these high-profile PubAid national awards once again. Please use the link to nominate your favourite pub/s www.derekthomas.org/PubAwards. You have until January 19th for both of these causes.
The Government introduced a Bill on Monday to formalise the licensing process for gas and oil extraction. In itself, the legislation makes sense as the UK will need oil and gas long after 2050 and after we have reached net zero. The Government argues that it is better for the environment and for energy security to extract UK fossil fuels rather than import it from China and Russia for example. I don’t disagree but I’d much prefer to focus our attention on reducing the oil and gas we consume such ans fixing our leaky homes, accelerating renewable energy production such as floating offshore wind and putting solar on our buildings. This is happening but nowhere near quickly enough. The Regulator for oil and gas extraction can already award licenses for new extraction and, as the Bill works its way through Parliament, I’m hopeful it will become much more about energy security than new gas and oil fields.
