3. What steps is the Welsh Government taking to help people with their fuel bills? OQ57605

Our existing Warm Homes programme for lower income households saves an average of £300 a year by improving energy efficiency. Additionally, on 1 February, I increased our winter fuel support payments to £200.

Thank you, Minister. Minister, the Welsh Government's Nest scheme offers a package of home energy efficiency improvements to lower energy bills. However, there are no specific grants for solar panels in Wales. In England, the smart export guarantee, launched on 1 January 2020, is a Government-backed initiative that requires some electricity suppliers to pay small-scale generators for low-carbon electricity that they can export back to the national grid, providing certain criteria are met. In Scotland, the Scottish Government provides interest-free loans through the Home Energy Scotland loan scheme, providing funding for various energy efficiency improvements, including home renewable systems. So, Minister, I'd like to ask what discussions have you had with ministerial colleagues here in Wales about schemes to provide grants for solar panels to be installed on domestic properties in Wales to provide people with long-term solutions to help with their fuel bills. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Natasha Asghar. This shows how cross-Government this policy area is, because this will also be a question for the Minister for Climate Change as well, but it also can feed into the consultation that I've just been talking about, responding to the question about energy efficiency, the Warm Homes programme and the consultation. So, clearly, we need to look at every opportunity in terms of investing in renewables, and that's for households as well. But I do have to say that this requires significant investment and I would hope you would support our call for increased allocation in terms of general taxation via the UK Government Treasury to help us with these really important ambitions.

Minister, the Tory cost-of-living crisis is impacting on every single household in Islwyn. Yet, while some Islwyn residents have to choose between eating or heating, yesterday, oil giant BP announced its highest profits for eight years: £9.5 billion. Last week, Shell announced profits of £14.3 billion, which analysts believe will grow to £23.6 billion by the end of the financial year in June. The Tories' unregulated capitalism is causing huge suffering for the people of Wales, whilst we await UK legislation on money laundering, offshore accounting and fraud. And, in contrast, the Welsh Labour Government's announcement of the expansion of the winter fuel support scheme, doubling the one-off payment to £200, is the sort of active mitigating measures that people need. Minister, BP's chief executive Bernard Looney has said himself that BP has become a cash machine. Therefore, what consideration has the Welsh Government given to making representations to the UK Tory Government to introduce a windfall tax on energy companies, to stand up for Welsh families who are suffering as multinational energy corporations enjoy excessive profits at a time of a national debt crisis?

Thank you very much. I think the strong support from this Chamber—some sides of this Chamber, anyway—in terms of calling for a windfall tax, which is precisely what Julie James and I called for last week when we responded to the Ofgem rise in the cap, which, of course, is devastating households across Wales, and in your constituency of Islwyn in particular—. I actually very much favoured the Western Mail editorial headline, 'Ease consumer pain with a windfall tax'. I believe that that actually does represent the views of people in Wales on those appalling windfalls—last week it was Shell and this week it's BP. With a £700 rise in the energy price cap, why don't they do a windfall tax now?