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Race Relations
- That the draft Race Relations Act 1976 (Amendment) Regulations 2003, which were laid before this House on 8th May, be approved.—[Derek Twigg.]
Race Relations
- That the draft Race Relations Act 1976 (Seamen Recruited Abroad) Order 2003, which was laid before this House on 14th May, be approved.
Division deferred till Wednesday 18 June, pursuant to Orders [28 June 2001 and 29 October 2002].
Motion made, and Question put forthwith, pursuant to Standing Order No. 118(6)(Standing Committees on Delegated Legislation),
Social Security
- That the draft State Pension Credit (Decisions and Appeals—Amendment) Regulations 2003, which were laid before this House on 14th May, be approved.—[Derek Twigg]
EUROPEAN UNION DOCUMENTS
Motion made, and Question put forthwith, pursuant to Standing Order No. 119(9)(European Standing Committees),
Broad Economic Policy Guidelines
- That this House takes note of European Union Document No. 8475/03, Commission Recommendation on the Broad Guidelines of the Economic Policies of the Member States and the Community (for the 2003–05 period); and supports the Government's welcome for the publication of the Recommendation and the operational context it provides for addressing the key economic policy issues and priorities over the next three years, in line with the European Union's strategic goal agreed at the Lisbon European Council.
Quality Of Bathing Water
Delegated Legislation
- That the following Statutory Instruments be referred to Standing Committees on Delegated Legislation: the Education (Additional Secondary School Proposals) Regulations 2003, (S.I., 2003, No. 1200), the Education (Outturn Statements) (England) Regulations 2003, (S.I., 2003, No. 1153), the Education (School Organisation Plans) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2003 (S.I., 2003, No. 1201) and the Education (School Organisation Proposals) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2003 (S.I., 2003, No. 1229).—[Derek Twigg.]
Joint Committee On Human Rights
- That Standing Order No. 152B (Human Rights) (Joint Committee)) be amended, in paragraph (5), by leaving out the words 'shall be three, except that for the purposes of taking evidence, the quorum'.—[Derek Twigg.]
Standing Committee On The Convention
- That the Order [12 June 2002] relating to the Standing Committee on the Convention be amended in paragraph (4)(b), by leaving out the words 'or be counted in the quorum'.— Derek Twigg.]
Gas Services (Bassetlaw)
Motion made, and Question proposed, That this House do now adjourn.—[Derek Twigg]
1.26 am
John Mann (Bassetlaw): I rise to raise an issue that has shocked and surprised me more than any other in the two years for which I have represented the constituency of Bassetlaw—that is, access to gas services. I wish first to set the scene in relation to the problem. A 90-year-old pensioner opens the door of her bungalow—the same door that she has opened for many decades. As a widow, she must face the freezing cold this winter, but worse is the risk of falling on the ice. It is black ice. It is always black ice, because of the spillage from the coal that she shovels up. A coal bunker is situated in her garden, as it always has been. Hot ashes are emptied three times a day. A fire is lit in the early morning and maintained through each winter's day. It is a traditional way of life, but there is no romanticism when she slips and falls; no glory when she is too ill to get out of bed; no thermostat to set; and, sadly, no longer a husband to assist in the carrying of the coal. There is no oil piped into the new boiler and there are no solar panels. There is the door and the coal bunker, and between them the four seasons.
That is the situation for several of the 92 pensioner bungalows on the Bracebridge estate in my constituency. They were all built around the time of the second world war, and none of them has access to gas. They are not remote homesteads in the back of beyond that have been forgotten, or where the price of taking the mains has been regarded as prohibitive—they are in the industrial centre of town. The estate is surrounded on all sides by new build from the 1950s, the 1960s, the 1970s and the 1980s, all with gas; Properties that were built 100 years ago stand on the opposite side of the street. All have gas.
I want the Government to consider two key issues. The first is the difficulty and cost of getting connected to gas, and the second is whether competition for gas supply is working. The Gas Act 1986 places a duty on the director general of gas supply to exercise his functions in such a way as to ensure that all reasonable demands for gas are met, provided that that can be done economically. The Act, as amended, is the statutory basis for arrangements that cover connection to the gas main. Section 10 stipulates that
- "a public gas supplier shall, upon being required to do so by the owner or occupier, give and continue to give a supply of gas to any premises which . . . are situated within 25 yards from a . . . main".
Public gas suppliers are allowed to charge people who require a gas supply for the expenses of laying the main. Ofgem recognised the difficulties of some communities in obtaining a connection to the gas network. It recently extended the time for recovery of charges from five years to 20 years so that those benefiting from the gas supply at a later date will contribute to the cost of the connection.
However, the changes do not solve the problems in Bassetlaw. In a debate on 5 December 2001, the then Minister said:
- "Communities and individuals are no longer forced to use Transco, but may access one of the dozen independent gas transporters . . . As a result of competition, 70 to 75 per cent. of connections to new housing developments are now carried out by companies other than Transco"
A range of legislation—most recently, the Utilities Act 2000—means that providing connections is fully competitive. Again, I quote the former Minister, who said:
- "My hon. Friend espouses the values of competition. As I am, among other things, the Minister for competition, I must encourage him to get behind the notion that competition benefits consumers and has done so tremendously. I am sure that competition is the way forward."—[Official Report, Westminster Hall, 5 December 2001; Vol. 376, c. 119-20WH.]
Gas companies are required to respond only when it is economical for them to do so. Let me cite prices for Bassetlaw that Transco recently gave me. In Blyth, the cost is £4,012 per household for approximately 50 households. In Shireoaks, the cost is £2,413 per household, and in Bracebridge, the initial price that was quoted to Mr. Needle, who was the first of the 92 to ask for gas, was approximately £10,500. I believe that Transco is charging over the odds, citing the regulatory restrictions. Its competitors, with one exception, are not interested in quoting. Yet Ofgem says that it envisaged that prices would continue to fall.
Mr. Barry Gardiner (Brent, North): I have listened carefully to the way in which my hon. Friend represents his constituents. Does he know that Transco has a long history of overcharging in what was supposed to be a new competitive environment? Indeed, a couple of years ago, Ofgem had to devise an order to the Gas Act 1986, forcing Transco to comply, be fully competitive and not use anti-competitive practices. My hon. Friend's description of the overcharging of his constituents is a good example of the general way in which Transco treats its customers.
John Mann: My hon. Friend is very knowledgeable in these matters; I know that he has pursued them with vigour in this Parliament and the previous one. The point that he makes is pertinent to this debate.
Ofgem has advised me that there are independent engineering companies that are also able to install pipes. On 22 May, it advised me that information about independent contractors engaged in laying gas infrastructure was in Yellow Pages and the Thomson directories. That does not seem to be an appropriate way for pensioners such as those in the three areas in my constituency that I have outlined to access the gas supply that the vast majority of people already have.
It gets worse. The 10-m rule was put out to consultation in April 2003 in a document entitled "Competition in one-off gas connections", which suggested price increase options or the abolition of the 10-m rule and of section 10(2)(a) of the Gas Act, as amended. In other words, this would affect the ability of some properties within 10 m of the main to be connected, supposedly for free, but in fact not for free at all. According to Ofgem, the 10-m rule principally affects lower-value domestic connections, yet Ofgem simultaneously states that disadvantaged households will not lose out disproportionately from its abolition. It strikes me that George Orwell must have inspired the writing of that document.
On investigation, it was discovered that 16 Bracebridge properties—out of a total of 92—could be connected under the 10-m rule, but not for free. The charge would be £312, which is a standard Transco charge. It is an arbitrary charge, because it is the same connection price as that charged for the infill, for which Mr. Needle was quoted £10,500. To summarise: one house could be connected "for free"—or, rather, for £312—while the semi-detached house next door would have to pay double or treble that amount for an identical service to an identical house. If those properties had been connected 20 years ago, it would have been cheap; now, it is expensive. Companies fight to work on new developments paid for by developers—that is where we see the competition—but there is no competition for doing the infills. I repeat that only two companies will even consider these three areas, and one of them—Transco—has no choice but to do so.
Who are the losers? They are the pensioners in mining communities who have never shifted to gas. The reason that they have not done so is partly an empathy with the industry in which they worked, and partly the concessionary coal that was available. So, when the rest of the country was shifting to gas 20 or 30 years ago, these isolated pockets of pensioners remained. What would the impact be if they did shift to gas? There would be a saving of 2.4 tonnes of CO2 emissions per household. Electric storage heater costs averaging £993 would be reduced to an average of £671 with gas.
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