Thank you to everyone who has contacted me about fuel poverty and energy support for low-income and vulnerable households.

I appreciate the concerns you raise. The cost-of-living crisis remains a reality for millions of people, with energy bills still significantly higher than they were only three years ago.

The Government says it is undertaking a review of its fuel poverty strategy and will use this to develop its approach to affordability, fuel poverty and wider retail market reforms. Unfortunately, I am concerned that it is failing to show a serious interest in protecting households from a retail energy market that is not working for those most in need. Indeed, as fuel poverty campaigners have highlighted, when the Government recently published a call for evidence on the retail energy market, it failed to include proposals for a social tariff, despite promising to do so in the 2022 Autumn Statement.

Furthermore, I am also concerned that the Government continues to refuse to fix costly loopholes in the windfall tax on oil and gas companies. This leaves in the hands of companies making record profits billions of pounds that I believe we should instead be using to help households with the cost of living.

I also agree that we need rapid action to bring housing up to standard. That is why I support a Warm Homes Plan that would reduce energy demand by insulating 19 million homes across the country over the next decade. In addition, I believe we need to accelerate the deployment of cheap, homegrown renewables to reduce bills in the longer term. I therefore support plans to deliver a fossil fuel-free electricity system by 2030. Together, these measures would save UK households over £1,000 per household every year.

Thank you once again to all who have contacted me about this issue. I can assure you that I will continue to support efforts to press the Government for action on lower energy bills and the cost of living.