Labour led a debate in the House of Commons this afternoon on a motion to grant a new energy regulator the power to revoke energy company licenses.

Julie said:

“Household energy bills have risen at twice the rate of inflation and four times as fast as wages since David Cameron became Prime Minister. Furthermore, shocking figures revealed last month show that household energy prices in the UK have risen faster than nearly everywhere in the developed world since 2010. This is neither sustainable nor acceptable.

“That is why Labour has promised to freeze energy prices for twenty months, whilst we reform the broken energy market to make it fair, transparent and competitive. The next Labour Government will also give the new energy regulator the power to revoke energy companies’ licences where there are serious and repeated breaches of their licence conditions detrimental to the interests of consumers.

“This is a crucial step towards building that fairer energy market. For too long, energy companies have seen regulator fines as merely a cost of doing business, a cost seemingly already factored into their balance sheets. Labour’s message is clear -; if an energy company is guilty of serious and repeated license breaches, it faces the real possibility of losing its license.”