Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:15 pm on 8 February 2022.
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.