Energy and fuel poverty - live webchat with Baroness Verma, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the Department of Energy & Climate Change

That's what I meant, Ana. Liggle wanted her personal view, on here. She is speaking as a representative of the government, therefore she will not be giving liggle a personal view on here.
On the other hand, her personal view might easily tie in with the government's view. Otherwise, why would she be a government spokesperson in the House of Lords, when many of them are independents?

Of course she's allowed to have a personal view. She may not feel able to post it on here though.

I don't think she is allowed to have a personal view, liggle45.

My question follows muchkin's in that it is about energy firms and how we are meant to know who really has the best deal, whether we are being ripped off and whether it's really necessary to go through the hassle and upheaval of constantly switching. It's one thing for car insurance but at my time of life I don't want to be doing with household bills as well. What is the government doing to help the consumer?

Winter fuel payments - I would love your PERSONAL view (ie not party line) on this. Should they be available to anyone of a certain age regardless of income?

My view is that they should be means tested and any money saved given to those at the other end of the scale who need it most (and for whom the WFP is simply not enough to make a difference)

Headlines today - dual-fuel customers of the big energy firms have missed big savings by not switching suppliers, according to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA)

It says that from 2012 to 2014, more than 95% of dual-fuel customers of the big firms would have have saved money by switching tariffs or suppliers. The savings they missed ranged from £158 to £234 a year per customer.

Spokesman from Which? said "Politicians and regulators have put too much faith in competition driving keener prices for consumers - this simply hasn't worked"

What do you have to say about this?

Baroness, the Green Deal was the government's flagship green initiative aimed at improving domestic energy efficiency. It has generated mountains of paperwork and huge amount of effort by private businesses. Not to mention a huge amount of effort by civil servants. Someone in the know once guesstimated that there were about 60 civil servants working for months on end just to get the relevant section of the bill written along with the mountains of rules and regulations.
It would now appear to be a dead duck, lying in the shallows with its feathers bedraggled.
In retrospect it was far too complex a model, leading to a very unappealing interest rate. (all those companies that have to be involved if it is to happen need to cover their costs and turn a tiny profit after all). I won't bore everyone with the list but it is quite long.
If you were still in your present role after the election would you be trying to give CPR to this embarrassing corpse and if not, what would you propose to do about improving the energy efficiency of our housing stock? And how would you address fuel poverty? And could we look forward to any other flagship green initiatives from your department?

Just as importantly, why has the government done a U-turn on Fracking under national parks and SSSIs ?
A couple of weeks ago, an outright ban on fracking in and under these places was agreed. Now Amber Rudd has said it might not be possible to guarantee that fracking will not take place under these areas.
This means that national parks could be completely ringed by fracking operators fracking under National Parks.

Why is the government pushing fracking instead of renewable energy?
When it was voted in in 2010, it said vote blue, get green.

After a 5 year term in office, I can see very little the present Government has done to help anyone, let alone the elderly with what has to be the biggest household expense after a mortgage. We know that all the energy companies are making massive profits. When the wholesale cost of energy goes up, prices to the consumer go up almost immediately and yet as things are at the moment, where wholesale prices have come down significantly, the energy companies have dragged their feet and a couple have given pathetic price cuts in SOME of their tariffs.

The current price cuts the energy companies have promised aren't due to come into effect until after we've got through the coldest part of winter. Why are they not being made to cut them now?

The Warm Home Discount that Glammanana refers to is £140 and correct me if I'm wrong is funded by the energy companies, which no doubt they get back by putting up EVERYONE'S energy prices including those they're giving the discount to. The majority of people who qualify for this discount get it automatically, they don't need to apply. The only thing the Government can take credit for is that they made the energy companies run this scheme, perhaps to compensate for the fact that the other payment the Winter Fuel Payment was in fact reduced by this Government in the winter of 2011/12 from £250 to £200 for the over 60's and from £400 to £300 for the over 80's (the most vulnerable of all people during cold weather). And that is helping how, exactly? How much have energy prices risen since that benefit cut in 2011?

This monthly payment by direct debit has turned into a nice little money spinner for the energy companies too. Why can you not make them pay money back to the customer at the end of each year if they are ending up being in credit more and more. We have just asked our energy company for £800 back. We were in credit to the tune of £1,200 and if we hadn't said anything they would have carried on taking the same monthly payments. It's an absolute scandal that these companies have used the direct debit scheme and monthly payments over the year to actually fund their business. Who else can get interest free borrowing on that scale?? If you made them pay interest to the customer on that money they're holding they'd soon want to pay it back.

I congratulate the powers that be on the Stay Warm system (I think that is what it is called) where by if you are on a low wage or benefits of some kind you can receive a credit of £139.00 into your account from suppliers it must help people in a big way,I think it is paid before the end of March each year if you qualify,I only found out about it when talking to one of my elderly neighbours who got the information from her luncheon group,so it would be a really good idea to make the information much more available to people who can qualify.