The Scottish Government, energy companies and advice
organisations met at Bute House today (Tuesday
23rd August) for a summit chaired by First
Minister .
During the meeting a consensus emerged around next steps that
must be taken by the UK Government, and where further work and
action will take place between energy companies, advice
organisations and the Scottish Government ahead of a follow up
meeting next month.
The First Minister said:
“Any further increase in energy bills in October will have a
profound impact on households, businesses and the public sector
already struggling with the cost crisis.
“No single government, company or organisation can solve this
crisis alone. It requires a collective response commensurate to
the situation and the Scottish Government is now treating this
situation as a public emergency.
“There was clear consensus at today’s summit that energy
customers simply cannot be expected to carry the burden of
further price rises in October, and that the UK Government must
now commit to freeze the cap for all households and to support
the energy companies to deliver that.
“This meeting was focussed on practical solutions, but without
action by the UK Government to address the problem at source, the
actions we discussed can only ever mitigate the impact of such
dramatic price rises at the edges.
“I am grateful to energy suppliers and our third sector partners
for coming to the table today and for committing to work together
with the Scottish Government to develop further action and
practical steps to help households and businesses through the
cost crisis."
Background
Following the meeting of the Scottish Government, energy
companies, and advice organisations, chaired by the First
Minister in Bute House this afternoon, participants agreed that
the scale of the energy cost crisis is unprecedented, with grave
consequences for consumers; and that while mitigation is vital -
and was the main focus of discussions - significant action is
needed from the UK government to avert the crisis at source.
The consensus reached in the meeting was that the UK government
should:
- Immediately cancel any further energy price increase for
domestic consumers, and work with the regulator and energy
companies to put in place the funding to support this;
- Provide significant additional support to help households and
businesses meet current energy bills and the impact of inflation
more generally;
- Take action to protect small and medium sizes businesses, and
other organisations not covered by the price cap, from rising
energy costs;
- Reform the energy market for the longer term to prevent this
situation occurring again in the future.
The following actions to mitigate the current situation were also
agreed and will be developed further:
- Energy companies will pursue all possible options to provide
enhanced support to consumers who are in difficulty, including
working with advice agencies and government to improve the
support available to consumers, and protect customers from
disconnection. It was agreed that the energy companies will work
with the Scottish government over the next two weeks to agree a
package of measures;
- The Scottish Government will provide additional support to
advice agencies and consider, as part of its emergency budget
review, further support for households and businesses. It will
also undertake a public information campaign to promote energy
efficiency measures alongside sources of help and support for
those in difficulty;
- This group will reconvene following the announcement by Ofgem
of the new price cap on Friday 26th August and
the appointment of a new Prime Minister to determine further
specific actions.
