Item 4 this afternoon is a statement by the Minister for Climate Change on the energy price cap. I call on the Minister, Julie James.

Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. Last week, the energy regulator, Ofgem, announced the price cap that will take effect from April this year for residential energy consumers. As my colleague Jane Hutt set out on Thursday, the 54 per cent increase in the cap is clearly a devastating blow on households and hard-pressed families already struggling with the cost of living. This latest increase comes on the heels of significant increases in 2021, and means a typical household’s dual fuel energy bill will be close to £2,000 a year. While this rise has been in part fuelled by the recent fluctuations in the global wholesale price of gas, the UK Government must be held accountable for the choices they have taken. It is the UK Government that set the pricing framework that Ofgem operate, and this is having an unfair impact on households.

We all recognise the need for urgent action from Government to meet our net-zero targets, but we must also recognise that a progressive approach is the fairest way to achieve that goal. We have been consistent and clear on the need for a just transition, with those most able to pay for the necessary changes paying the greatest share of the costs. As a result, we have called for the UK Government to fund the cost of the change through a progressive tax system, rather than these costs being passed through directly to the consumer, hitting households hard with these steep price rises when other costs are also spiralling.

Secondly, the UK has long suffered from significant underinvestment in new renewable energy generation. Throughout the last decade, the Conservative Government in London cut subsidies and failed to put in place the incentives for the scale of investment needed. As a result, we have an imbalance in our energy system, with an over-reliance on fossil fuels, at considerable environmental cost. In addition, the UK Government advocates financial models for new energy investment that pass the costs to consumers, transferring the risk from developers to households, placing future burdens on household bills through higher prices.

And finally, we have a UK Government that has continued to cut welfare for those most in need, failed to raise taxation from those most able to pay, and left those most vulnerable in our communities with a cost-of-living crisis. Taking this latest increase in the price cap, 145,000 households who were at risk of fuel poverty in 2018 are now likely to be struggling to make ends meet. This means more than a quarter of all households in Wales, if not more, are having to make difficult choices about whether or how to heat their homes.

The Minister for Social Justice and I wrote to the UK Government on 11 January, pressing the case for immediate action and setting out a series of actions that needs to be taken. Those actions include an expansion of the warm home discount, removing policy costs from household bills and funding them instead from general taxation. The UK Government’s response announced last week falls considerably short of the action needed. While the proposal to provide a £200 discount to all households will help with the bills households need to pay today, it is not available until next October. Even when this support does come through, it is a one-off payment; it needs to be repaid over the next five years, so will do nothing to help households in the medium term.

The UK Government is gambling that wholesale gas prices will fall so that the impact of the repayment won’t be felt as much by households. But the reality is likely to be an additional burden on households to pay this money back at a time when the price cap continues to rise as a result of the fundamental failures in the way the UK Government oversees the energy system. The outcome here is that consumers face higher costs for a sustained period of time. This is not a short-term spike in the market, and in my meeting with Ofgem last week they were clear to me that there will be difficult times ahead for households. I called on Ofgem to ensure that the rights of customers are protected and vulnerable households have full access to the support and advice that is available. I reiterated my commitment to work with Ofgem to ensure households in Wales maximise all the services at this time of hardship.

Dirprwy Lywydd, we are clear that we will use the powers that are available to us to support those most in need. Our cold weather resilience plan sets out 14 actions we are already taking with partners to support households. A key action is helping to improve domestic energy efficiency through the Warm Homes programme Nest scheme. Our continued investment saves lower income households on average more than £300 on their energy bills. Our £51 million household support fund announced in November included £38 million being allocated to support a winter fuel support scheme. This offered working-age households in receipt of means-tested benefits a one-off payment of £100 towards the cost of their energy needs. And, last week, in the face rising pressure on households and inaction from the UK Government, we led by example and announced an expansion to the winter fuel support scheme, doubling the one-off payment to £200. Unlike the UK Government proposal, this is immediate support without a repayment schedule. This additional funding will go some way to helping the most vulnerable in our society to pay their fuel bills during this difficult time, but we know this still will not be enough for many people living in need. 

In light of the changes in April, and the likelihood of further increases, we want to do more. Last week the Minister for Social Justice and I met with National Energy Action to explore the options for further measures of support. To take this work forward we will be hosting a summit on 17 February with front-line services and other key groups to identify what more can be done to support households both now and in the future. And, as we look to the future, we need to recognise that the most sustainable watt of energy is the one that isn’t needed. That is why we will continue to put in place policies that support reducing the demand for energy, saving Welsh people and businesses money as well as tackling emissions—policies that include investing in the housing stock to improve energy efficiency, supporting the circular economy to encourage reuse and repair, and working closely with industry to support a more sustainable use of energy.

We are committed to a just transition and ensuring the energy system in Wales supports renewable energy generation is the fairest way possible. As we continue to press the UK Government for urgent changes to the way the market is regulated, we will do all we can to support households in Wales. A greener, stronger and fairer future for Wales is at risk from an outdated energy market and an energy pricing structure that is blind to the impacts on the poorest and most vulnerable in society. We must and will work to do whatever we can to keep our vision alive for future generations. Diolch. 

Conservative spokesperson, Janet Finch-Saunders.  

Diolch. Thank you, Minister, for your statement today. Frankly, I have to be honest, when I first read it, I thought I'd picked up the wrong document, because it read rather more like a party political broadcast by the Welsh Labour Party. We have devolution, we've had this for 22 years now, and, I'm afraid, to keep pointing the finger of blame on the UK Government for what is a global crisis is not what my constituents in Aberconwy want to hear. Your original target was to completely eradicate fuel poverty in all households by 2018, yet recent estimates show that 155,000 households are living in fuel poverty, 12 per cent of households here in Wales, 20 per cent of households in the private sector living in fuel poverty, and 9 per cent in the social housing sector. If these targets had not been missed, quite simply, the people of Wales would not be facing as severe a crisis as they are today.

I do acknowledge that the Welsh Government has been driving forward some improvements to energy efficiency, but that is now turning into a bit of a nightmare, isn't it, for you as a Government? Arbed has seen residents in a number of villages in Gwynedd experiencing issues with damp and green slime following works to their homes. Bridgend County Borough Council was recently forced to apologise to residents after issues such as the faulty sealing of windows, damp, mould and algae. Your key delivery mechanism, the Warm Homes programme, between 2011 and 2023, is now only expected to reach 79,000 homes. So, will you consider, Minister, being proactive and amend the eligibility criteria for support, so that all 155,000 of those living in fuel poverty can actually see some benefit?

The total cost of decarbonising housing stock based on Welsh School of Architecture estimates is circa £15 billion, of which more than £10 billion is for the social housing stock and for homes in fuel poverty. Capital funding under the residential decarb and quality budget expenditure line is £72 million for 2022-23, increasing to £92 million for both schemes in 2023-24 and 2024-25. On that basis, it could take the Welsh Government over 160 years to invest all the money needed to decarbonise all housing stock. So, tell us, in a meaningful way, how are you going to put the foot on the accelerator?

You claim to want a progressive tax system. However, a 10 per cent windfall tax, which has been proposed, would likely raise much less than is being claimed, and, depending on companies’ behavioural response, may actually reduce tax revenues. So, I do hope, Minister, that you will acknowledge that the current tax rate charged on oil and gas profits is already more than double the rate charged on profits in most other sectors of the economy.

We the Welsh Conservatives will not support any more taxation placed on our hard-working families by your Government. There are limited levers the UK Government does have to deal—[Interruption.] I know you don't like hearing it, but it has to be said. [Interruption.]

I would like to hear the—[Interruption.] I would like to hear the Member's questions to the Minister, so please give her an opportunity to do so.

Thank you. Reducing the universal credit taper rate, increasing the national living wage, freezing fuel duty for the twelfth year in a row, and now the historic rebate scheme announced last week. The UK Government scheme, Joyce, will help with household bills immediately and will protect people against as much as half of the £700 increase. The Welsh Government will receive £175 million in Barnett consequentials as a result of the UK Government's announcement of £150 off council tax bills. Will you commit to replicating this in Wales?

I am astounded by your false claim that there has been a significant underinvestment in new renewable energy generation. I hope you certainly do acknowledge the fact that the UK Government has committed £90 million to innovate Welsh net-zero projects, and is certainly delivering on its plan for a green industrial revolution. The UK Government—you keep mentioning them, so will I—also has a plan for a world-leading hydrogen economy, which includes a commitment to create a hydrogen village trial by 2025, and potentially pilot a hydrogen town by the end of the decade. So, will you again reflect such ambition by expanding on the commitment in carbon budget 2 to support local hydrogen projects and place-based solutions?

I acknowledge that support is to be provided—

The Member must come to a conclusion now.

Yes, I will do now—to Blaenau Gwent via the Smart Living programme to develop a type of microgrid on an industrial estate that would help us to move to renewable energy and create and distribute cleaner energy locally. So, bearing in mind, Minister, that the north Wales energy strategy includes a microgrid development as a priority area, will you establish a microgrid trial in north Wales? It's time that north Wales benefited from some innovation from this Welsh Government. Diolch. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer.

Well, where to start? So, Arbed—Arbed has had some problems, absolutely, and as Janet Finch-Saunders said herself, we have taken responsibility for those both through our local authorities and as a Welsh Government. Unfortunately, there were preceding schemes to Arbed that the UK Government propagated—many of the Members here have had terrible problems with them in their constituencies. The UK Government's response to that has been to throw up their hands in horror, say there's no bond and there's nothing that can be done and the householder is entirely alone. So, Janet, before you start flinging stones, you really should have a look at where you're picking the stones up from, because you really are not in a good place as Conservatives to say that you've protected consumers from very poorly thought out schemes. 

Going on to the decarbonisation proposal, we have very much learnt from some of the difficulties we had with Arbed, and indeed from some of the small difficulties we had with the Welsh housing quality standard. One size does not fit all. So, we have an optimised retrofit programme here in Wales where we are trialling different technologies for different types of housing, making sure that we learn from the problems of the past with cavity wall installations that have gone wrong—some of them are excellent, but some of them have gone wrong—and other issues that have arisen, to make sure that we have the right programme for the right house.

Across the border, we have Prime Minister de Pfeffel going on about air source heat pumps for all houses, which you may as well install on the outside, because without addressing all of the other issues, they absolutely will not have any effect. 

A couple of other things that you mentioned: the windfall tax. I mean, I don't know where to start with that. A company that can announce record profits at the same time as putting energy prices up to the point where people really are choosing between heating and eating, and you're telling me that they're already paying enough tax—. Well, I think that says it all about the Conservatives. It's beyond satire—I won't even attempt it. If you can't see the problems you're making, I feel really sorry for you.

The £150 council tax issue is another one. So, that's a rebate on council tax; we already have a council tax relief scheme here in Wales that isn't duplicated in England. That council tax rebate cannot be claimed by anyone paying a collective rent, so anyone in a flat, anyone paying council tax as part of their rent will not be able to claim it. We've asked questions about that. It will be really interesting to see how that works. The idea that the £200 that's being given to people is a loan—I mean, even, Janet, you must be able to see the idiocy of relying on a market so volatile as this to even itself out so that people won't mind repaying a loan. I mean, it's just breathtaking. 

This Government, on the other hand, is doing what we can to help immediately with grants to people who are in immediate need. The idea that you're telling me what the cost of living is when you're the Government who took away the £20 universal credit uplift, who has frozen the local housing market allowance—. You're talking to me about rising rents at the same time as freezing the local housing allowance, having only put it up once in 15 years—absolutely outrageous behaviour, frankly, driving people into poverty—I will not be putting up with that. It's absolutely outrageous that you've done that. People living in private sector rented accommodation who can no longer claim the full cost of their rent absolutely through the welfare policies of your Government, that you support, that you've never got anything to say against—it's just extraordinary. I'm sure the people of Aberconwy have lots of questions to ask, probably along those lines.

In terms of innovative energy developments, we have worked very hard here in Wales, both with Ofgem and with everyone else to develop decentralised grid structures. However, the UK Government is in charge of the so-called national grid. The instructions to Ofgem mitigate that. You could do a great deal of good for your constituents, Janet, by asking the UK Government to devolve that to Wales, because we need upfront grid development that is not driven by consumer policies and contracts, but is driven by need and which allows a distributed grid. I would absolutely be behind you there. Closed-loop grids have caused endless problems because as soon as they go down, as we've learnt to our cost in Baglan, the UK Government will not step in, it will not legislate to make sure that the official receiver steps in to help the people there.

So, I am taking no lessons whatsoever from you on how to deal with welfare, on how to deal with poverty, on how to develop innovative energy structures or on how to deal with the UK Government. Actually, Janet, you really do need to do your research better.

Plaid Cymru spokesperson, Delyth Jewell.

Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. Minister, as we've just been hearing, millions of people across the UK are going to be put in a situation of incredible stress because of the price cap on bills going up by 54 per cent. Parts of Wales are set to be hardest hit in all of the UK. Local authority areas, including Ceredigion, will be looking at £972, Gwynedd £904, Carmarthenshire £853, Powys £848. Those are Office for National Statistics figures. Fourteen of the 22 local authorities in Wales will be affected worse than the average price rise of £693. Some of those areas are already areas that have some of the lowest wages in the UK as well and, obviously, as we often discuss, behind all of those figures are going to be truly terrifying situations for individuals and for families.

This comes at a time, of course, when millions are already struggling to make ends meet, to put food on the table, to pay phone bills, broadband bills, transport cost, housing costs, education-related costs—the list just goes on and on and on, doesn't it? One step the Welsh Government, I think, really needs to take is to reduce the overall costs of living in order to counteract some of the steeper price rises. I know that you've been alluding to this a little already. I'm very glad to hear that the summit will be going ahead on 17 February. Of course, that comes as a result of the Senedd voting in favour of Plaid Cymru's recent motion calling for an emergency plan. I really welcome this. Could I ask you what sorts of measures will be on the table for discussion at this summit? You said that it will include meetings with front-line services and key groups, and I do really welcome that, but could you offer us, please, some assurance that this summit will include voices of people who are going to be directly impacted by this cost-of-living crisis, and how their voices might be heard as part of that?

Fuel poverty, of course, is not a new problem. People are already struggling to stay warm and well, and the price-cap increase is going to push them deeper into trouble. As Care & Repair Cymru have expressed, people are changing their behaviours, and this is going to impact on their health. They're going to be cutting back on heating and using less electricity out of a fear of going into energy debt. The cold is responsible for many health conditions. It causes hospital admissions and more deaths. Could I ask you, Minister, what targeted measures the Welsh Government is going to be employing in order to ensure support reaches the people who are most vulnerable and who are going to be most vulnerable to these rises? I'd be particularly interested to hear what the Welsh Government will be doing in terms of preventing and responding to debt when it comes to energy bills, in addition to what you've already laid out, of course. I'm really keen, and I know that I've talked about this before, to hear more about how people on pre-payment meters are going to be supported, because they could face having their energy turned off if they run out of money. So, are there specific measure that you're exploring that could help people in that really dire situation, please?

And finally, this is an area that's already come up in your exchange with Janet, of course, to turn to housing. As we've been hearing, we have the oldest housing stock in the UK and some of the least energy-efficient homes as well. The latest estimate for homes in fuel poverty in Wales is already 12 per cent, which is one in every 10 homes or something, and I think that that estimate is from 2019, so that could well underestimate the problem. A colleague of mine in Westminster has been talking about how there are 275,000 homes in Wales—nearly a fifth of all households—that aren't connected to the gas grid. That figure is, I think, from 2020. And in rural areas, like Ceredigion, that figure goes up to as much as 80 per cent. In Wales we seem to have a series of unique challenges that are going to make this crisis, or these coalescing crises, even more acute, in terms of housing, in terms of heating, and we do really need to get to grips with that now more than ever.

I recognise the questions have already been answered in this session already, but in your statement you did make reference to this situation. Could you please provide an update on progress to improve the energy efficiency of homes during the Senedd term and inform the Senedd of any future plans to make the Wales housing stock more energy efficient, particularly, perhaps, when we're talking about off-grid homes? Thank you very much.

Diolch. So, yes, I'll just run through, very quickly, some of those. So, Jane Hutt and I had a very good meeting with Ofgem. I'm sorry, each day blends into each other—I think it was Friday of last week. Late last week anyway. It might have been very late Thursday, I can't remember. But, anyway, it was a very good meeting, although it was quite tense, because we're not happy at all about the way that this has been dealt with, but we raised a number of points. The pre-payment-meter point was certainly one that was high on our agenda. There are some really technical issues about if your supplier goes down, what happens to the existing payments that you have, and whether you have to pay balloon payments or not. So, that was well aired at the meeting. We also were reassured by Ofgem that they have asked the energy companies to put in place measures that will identify people who are self-disconnecting, as in they're not using any energy anymore, because they've turned their heating off and so on. Because obviously they can see that from the meters, particularly on pre-payment meters—they can see that people aren't paying into them. So, we'll be continuing that conversation, both at the round-table and with Ofgem. There are a number of things that we need to put in place to make sure people aren't self-disconnecting, as they call it—stopping using energy.

Part of the issue about the round-table is to glean information and ideas from around Wales on what we can do, and to put those measures in place. My colleague Jane Hutt is actually in charge of the round-table and its distribution, and I'm attending as well. I will take up the point about lived experience, though; I'm sure she'll have that in hand, but I'll come back to you on that. We certainly will have National Energy Action there as the voice of the sector in representing that, so I'll certainly come back to you on that.

One of the things we are very keen to do, and we've already funded our advice agencies to do this, is to make sure that people can get the right advice. So, on the off-grid point, for example, it's not always understood that the fuel payments—. You're eligible for those even if you're on off-grid oil. You don't have to be a gas user. So, if you meet the eligibility criteria, you'll be on course for that.

You will have heard me, Delyth, a number of times in this Chamber talk about the problems we have in Wales where you can see a windfarm out of your window, but you're on off-grid oil and so on. We will be working with our energy advice services to make sure that communities that host windfarms, for example, can take community benefits that can be used to insulate their homes, and make sure that they're available for electricity heating. That wouldn't be the case until you've done quite a lot of work. Community benefits can be used for a number of things. The community themselves need to choose those benefits, but we can assist them with a menu of choices that people might be able to choose from, and encourage the use of those benefits for things like insulation, retrofit and so on, to bring the houses up to standard. It's obviously in the energy companies' interests as well, because that gives them more customers for their energy, but also you use less energy by insulating your home in that way. So, there are a number of things that we have in train to do this, but, obviously, they're longer term, they're not going to solve the immediate crisis that we certainly face, and my colleague Jane Hutt has put a range of measures in place, as I said, and a number of payments.

The last thing I wanted to say to you was that we are very keen on talking to the private rented sector—again, you'll have heard me saying this—about taking the lessons from our optimised retrofit programme and starting to introduce them into the private rented sector houses, so not the owner-occupier sector yet. As you know, we've been putting incentive schemes in place to get private rented sector landlords to give their houses across to us while we bring them up to standard. 

The depression of the local housing allowance is a really big problem for us. So, it used to be at 50 per cent, just to remind everybody; the Conservatives dropped that to 30 per cent and then froze it. In areas of Wales it's covering less than 5 per cent of the rental market at its current level, so it's a disaster, really. We'll have to find some other mechanism in order to be able to support those landlords in order to get that in place. But I cannot emphasise enough the sort of stealth measure that the Conservative Government did in freezing that allowance, and the effect that that's having on (a) people's ability to heat their home and pay their rent, but also on our ability to intervene in that market in a way that means that the private sector rented landlords can have help to bring their property up to standard, which is really important. 

The last thing I'll say, Deputy Llywydd, is that part of the ORP programme, the optimised retrofit programme, is to figure out what works, but it's also to skill a workforce. So, at the moment we're skilling people to put more efficient gas boilers in. The whole point of this programme is to work out the tech that works, but also work out the skills that are necessary to fit it, so that once we have those skills in place, we can roll out the grant programme to the private sector, knowing that there'll be the skilled workpeople there to put those provisions in place, and that isn't the case now, if you look at that. Then my colleague Rebecca Evans, who's sitting in the Chamber with me, and I have started to discuss, as a preliminary point, whether there can be incentives put into the market to reward people who bring their houses up to the energy efficiency standard A and so on, in terms of discounts and so on. Because a very interesting part of the conversation with Ofgem was about why the market itself isn't responding to that. So, if you bring your house up to EPC A it isn't currently commanding a premium in the market, which seems counterintuitive. So, we'll be looking at incentives to do that as well. 

Diolch, Weinidog. I thank you for your statement. You set out this afternoon that there is a clear divergence between Government interventions in Wales and those Government interventions in England. The UK scheme, as we all know, is too little too late. It's going to saddle every householder with debt, giving with one hand and taking back with the other, whereas the Welsh Government has targeted support for the most vulnerable households now, with no strings attached. You talked about the UK Government's gamble on wholesale prices. The fact is that Tory Governments have been gambling with the UK's energy security for years. For example, in 2017, it allowed the country's largest gas storage facility to close. That left Britain able to store just 2 per cent of annual demand, whereas other major gas importers can store 20 to 30 per cent. At the same time, as you said, Conservative Governments have not invested anywhere near enough in new renewable energy generation. They've cut subsidies and—

Could the Member come to a question?

—they have never fixed the roof when the sun was shining. Just one more sentence, if I can. What I would like, Minister, is some feedback from the 17 February meeting that you have alluded to, particularly for my area, where many people are off-grid, to see what help we can give those people who are accessing gas and oil off-grid and they don't have the luxury of that price cap. 

Diolch, Joyce. So, a couple of things there. Absolutely, on the storage point, although really what we need to do is move away from fossil fuels to renewables. One of the issues about the investment and the lack of investment and the investment models is really interesting. So, the UK Government consulted last year, and then accepted, as a result of a piece of work and consultation, a model called a regulated asset base model, which effectively capitalises the cost of investment in renewables and then puts the cost of that onto consumer bills. So, it basically gets the consumer to pay for it. So, it's a wheeze not to have to put any Government money into it. And that's one of the difficulties we have, that we're up against a Government that doesn't put upfront investment in and comes up with a model that puts the price back onto the consumer. And, in fact, they announced that just at the first of the Ofgem price rises at the end of last year in a, even for the Conservatives, remarkably tin-eared way of announcing it, I thought. 

Of course, Deputy Llywydd, we'll be very happy to do feedback on 17 February. Either myself or Jane Hutt, I'm sure, will do a statement in Plenary about the outcome of that, so we can get the advice out to everyone's constituents. And just in terms of off-grid oil, we are looking for innovative ideas and things that we can do at the round-table, as well as sharing things. I'm very interested in whether we could help communities to come together to bulk buy oil, which would get the price down, and to help them put the storage facilities in place for themselves because, as always, the poorer you are, the less likely you are to be able to take advantage of bulk prices, the less likely you are to come together as a community to do that. So, there will be things that we're really interested in looking to see whether we can assist people to do, perhaps with upfront loans in order to get the bulk purchasing in and get the lower price, or a number of other things that we're interested in looking at. So, Joyce, if you have communities you think would be interested in that, I'd be really grateful to work with you to see if we can identify them. 

Good afternoon, Minister. Thank you so much for your statement. I recognise the anger and passion that you feel when you're addressing the complete lack of empathy and fairness that we hear from the party opposite in their role in making families poorer, and particularly when we face this massive, massive effect on their lives. I can afford to pay the fuel increase that is coming on, and I'm sure many of us in this Chamber can, but there are many who can't. And I urge you, whatever party you belong to, go and talk to those households, go and hear their tales, go and hear exactly the situations they're in, because that's what's missing here from the Conservatives: fairness and empathy. 

We've heard a lot about households. I just want to talk a little bit, if I may, Minister, about small businesses. In Powys and Pembrokeshire, in the region that I cover, and others in the Siambr cover, there are a higher number of micro and small businesses, and they are affected by this price hike. I wonder if I could ask you what targeted help there is available to those small businesses at this particular time from Welsh Government. Thank you. Diolch yn fawr iawn. 

Thanks very much, Jane. One of the things that we want to look at at the round-table is how we can target microbusinesses in particular. So, we have the business rates relief scheme in place, of course, so many small businesses won't be paying rates already because they'll be taking advantage of that. But we are very keen to target other help to businesses. So, one of the things we will be looking at at the round-table is how we can do that. It's also about how we can skill up our advice agencies to give the right advice for business and commercial debt, as well as for personal and household debt. So, we will certainly be looking at that. We'll be working with the Federation of Small Businesses and others to make sure that we understand that. We're very concerned indeed that even the smallest coffee shop, who might have had a marginal profit, is going to really struggle with its energy costs, given the price hikes that we have. So, we will certainly be looking at that. I don't have the answer right now; part of the point of the round-table, of course, is to do exactly that.

We are also encouraging businesses, of course, to invest in renewables, including solar and so on, and battery storage, to make sure that they can get the best out of a change to renewables. And I can't emphasise enough that security of supply is very important for our business communities, of course, as well as for our households. 

Thank you, Minister, for your statement today on an issue that is of concern to very many of my constituents. I've got three questions for you. Firstly, I note the comments from the Minister for Social Justice that Welsh Government has called on the UK Government to consider introducing a differentiated domestic energy tariff cap, or a social energy tariff. I wonder whether you could say a little more about this; for example, how it might work, how many people in Wales might benefit and by what amount. 

My second question, Minister. When the Minister for Social Justice was speaking to the cross-party group on poverty, it was noted that many people eligible for the winter fuel support scheme had not, at that point, applied for the support. Can you provide any update on this and perhaps outline what additional work the Welsh Government is doing to make sure anyone who is eligible receives this funding?

And lastly, my trade union, the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers, recently surveyed their membership, and four out of five people who responded said that financial worries were impacting their mental health. What discussions have you had with colleagues in Welsh Government about putting in mechanisms and support for Welsh citizens whose mental health is being impacted by financial worries?   

Diolch, Vikki. So, a couple of things there, then. The differentiated cap, we were discussing with Ofgem how that might work. We've called on the UK Government to look at putting a differentiated price cap in place. Somewhat counterintuitively as well, and they've announced it now, we also asked them to look at reviewing the price more frequently, because one of the big issues for anyone who's struggling to make ends meet is predictability. So, the idea that you wait every six months and then there's a massive hike, you can't possibly predict that, you can't budget for it, you can't put money aside. And somewhat counterintuitively, I guess, if you have smaller rises along the way, it's much more manageable. So, that was announced by Ofgem as an ask as well. But we're basically saying, 'Why can't you have a cap that differentiates for means?' So, if you're on welfare benefits, then the cap is lower, if you're on a prepayment meter, then the cap is lower, and so on. I can think off the top of my head of a number of ways that we could do that that would make that work, and it spreads the load differentially away from those most hardest hit, on whose shoulders we always seem to heap the biggest burden, across to those of us, as Jane Dodds said, who may be able to afford, or at least more easily afford, the price growth. So, that was the point there.

In terms of the winter fuel support scheme, one of the reasons we're having the 17 February round-table is to figure out, along with all of the advice agencies that will be taking part, how we can get that advice out more effectively. We're working with council colleagues as well to make sure that people who are eligible for other benefits are signposted to these benefits. I've actually had a couple of meetings with a diverse range of other stakeholders—banks and so on—saying that they can get it out through there, because they have alert mechanisms for customers who are experiencing debt difficulties, that they can start to signpost them to advice services that would assist them to get grant assistance from us and so on. So, we're very keen to make sure that people do have that take-up where the money is available, and that's why I was keen to say that people on off-grid oil are also eligible. I think it's often a myth that people think they aren't. 

And then, just in terms of the mental health issue, again, in the signposting for debt advice, we are signposting mental health services at the same time. We have funded the advice agencies in order to give a holistic package of support to families coming forward, and we are in discussion with a number of other areas, team around the family and so on, in family support services to make sure that named workers are able to assist with signposting as well. Families who are in difficulty often have a real problem with admitting it, and I really do fear that, in this particular wave—. I mean, this is an awful thing, an indictment of our society, if I might say so. We have some families who are used to having to ask for help and have kind of grown a thicker skin around it—what a terrible thing to say in a rich society. We have another wave of people who will not have grown that thicker skin and who will feel shame and embarrassment. I'm here to say that they should not, that it's not anything that they have done wrong themselves, that they should come forward and get the help that they richly deserve, and that people should not feel that it is their fault for not being able to manage.

Thank you, Minister, for bringing forward today's statement, which of course is very timely. I would like, first of all, to join Members across the Chamber in acknowledging the difficulties coming from the increase in these energy costs, which will hit many hard-working families up and down the country.

As you've highlighted in your statement, Minister, there are long-term issues, though, that need to be addressed. The first, as I see it, is how we as an island nation of Great Britain can become energy self-sufficient and, of course, the part that we can play in Wales here in delivering that aim. The second, which you've also acknowledged in your statement, is the measures that can be undertaken to reduce our reliance on energy consumption, full stop.

So, in light of this, Minister, how do you see your and the Welsh Government's role in tackling these long-term issues, and how will you accelerate your plans to deal with the strategic opportunities that will come about from these as well? Thank you.

Thanks very much indeed for that, Sam. Absolutely, there are some long-term issues. The whole issue about energy security and energy self-sufficiency is certainly one of them. Our plan, of course, is to get Wales to the point where it's a net exporter of energy, so we are producing so much renewable energy here in Wales that we are able to export it, and all of our needs are met here.

There are a number of things that we need to do in terms of energy generation, but there are also things that we need to do in terms of curbing consumption. That's just around all of the things that we just talked about—optimised retrofit, making sure that our homes are fit for purpose and so on. 

It is also about changing the habits of a lifetime. I constantly say to my children, 'I know that it's an LED, but it still uses some electricity. Shut the light off when you go out of the room.' You get the kind of 'talk to the hand' thing that you get with teenagers, but I do think that the habits of a lifetime are important: unplugging things that you're not using, and just minimise your energy consumption—not because you are poor or because it's a problem, but because it's good for the world, it's good for the planet. The more energy that we don't need to generate, the better off the planet is.

So, we're doing a whole public engagement programme with our carbon budget 2, which goes along those kinds of small behaviour changes that make a huge difference. We will be engaging with the commercial sector on that as well. We've got into the habit over the twentieth century of lighting up our shop windows and our towns in a way that may be not entirely necessary as we go forward into a climate crisis.

But, fundamentally, we do need to produce more renewable energy. We need to take advantage of the enormous abundance of natural resources that we have around us, and we have a number of programmes in place to exploit marine energy—wave power and tidal energy, which are two different things, I've recently learned—wind, solar and all the rest of it. 

I did mention in passing in a previous answer, Deputy Llywydd, that we are having an ongoing conversation with Ofgem, not just about the energy price cap and how it works, although we have obviously had a number of issues with that, but about the grid and the necessity to make that fit for purpose and to allow distributed forms of energy production, so, homes as power stations. That means that you have to have a feed-in as well as a feed-out arrangement on the grid. So, we are having good conversations about how we can get those things to be fit for the twenty-first century, and to get the investment in place to do so.   

And finally, Rhianon Passmore.

Diolch, Deputy Llywydd. Minister, the Tory cost-of-living crisis is impacting on every single household in Islwyn, and I welcome very much the Minister's Ofgem meeting on many topics, but especially around the prepayment meter concerns that have been raised. Ofgem have stated that average energy charges for households will rise to £1,971 in April, with no current immediate UK help. With the UK broken into 14 different pricing regions, where it costs different amounts to get electricity and gas into people's homes, there is inherent and intrinsic fragmentation of pricing across Britain.

Minister, the people of Islwyn have welcomed the Welsh Labour Government's announcement of the expansion of the winter fuel support scheme, doubling the one-off upfront payment to £200. So, what assessment has the Welsh Government made of the adequateness, or otherwise, of the UK Tory Government's response to this cost-of-living crisis? How is the freezing of local housing allowance fair? What further representations will the Welsh Government make to the UK Tory Government calling for urgent changes to the way the energy market is regulated to support the people of Wales? And how can Wales further pioneer and develop community energy schemes benefiting local communities, like the proposed green hydro scheme on the Aberbargoed plateau in Islwyn? Thank you.

Diolch, Rhianon. So, as I said, Jane Hutt and I have written to the Secretary of State, Kwasi Kwarteng, the Secretary of State for BEIS, calling for five pretty straightforward actions: remove the social policy costs on household energy bills and move them to general taxation as, as you've just said, they're a very regressive and unfair tax in their current form; introduce a differentiated domestic energy tariff cap that Vikki Howells mentioned just now, and have a better tariff targeted to better support lower income households; provide further and increased support through the warm home discount and other winter fuel payment schemes, so not loans but grants and one-off payments, to get to people; expand the ability of suppliers, very importantly, to write off household energy debt and introduce match-funding elements to the schemes, with costs met by the UK Government; and increase the local housing allowance, for all the reasons we've set out. We've not yet had a response. I will be writing again to remind the Secretary of State that he has not yet responded.

I just want to point out as well, Rhianon, as you raised it, that we will get the £175 million in consequential funding as a result of the £150 rebate for homes in bands A to D. I did say, in answer to Janet Finch-Saunders, that large numbers of people will not be able to take advantage of that. The First Minister has already said that the Cabinet will look at how we can use the funding to support people who need help the most, and I know my colleague Rebecca Evans is looking at that with her officials.

I'll just remind the Senedd that the average band D council tax bill in England is £167 higher than in Wales already, and that we have an existing £244 million council tax reduction scheme, which helps 270,000 households in Wales with council tax bills, and around 220,000 pay nothing at all. So, we're already considerably further advanced than the—I think—very paltry offering from the Conservative Government.

I thank the Minister.