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Energy Prices Energy-intensive Industries 2025-05-01
01 May 2025
Lead MP
Gareth Snell
Debate Type
Urgent Question
Tags
EconomyTaxationClimate
Other Contributors: 14
At a Glance
Gareth Snell raised concerns about energy prices energy-intensive industries 2025-05-01 in the House of Commons. A government minister responded. Other MPs also contributed.
How the Debate Unfolded
MPs spoke in turn to share their views and ask questions. Here's what each person said:
Lead Contributor
Opened the debate
Will the Minister confirm that the Government will take immediate action to reduce energy prices for energy-intensive industries, particularly in the ceramics sector? The urgent question highlights the critical situation faced by workers and businesses due to high energy costs, which have led to factory closures and job losses. Mr Snell seeks concrete steps to support these vital sectors before further damage occurs.
Gareth Snell
Lab/Co-op
Stoke-on-Trent Central
Question
The ceramics sector is facing significant challenges due to factory closures and increasing energy bills. Despite previous discussions, the current measures do not adequately address the specific needs of the ceramics industry. Mr Snell asks for a wholesale change in subsidies and energy pricing before GB Energy comes online, ensuring no policy costs are moved onto gas prices. He also urges immediate action to support the sector.
Minister reply
The Minister acknowledges the urgency but cannot make promises outside her remit. She commits not to impose extra costs on the ceramics industry and is working proactively to help and support through every suggested reform in the Ceramics UK package. A meeting with Mr Snell next week will further discuss these issues.
Andrew Bowie
Con
West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine
Question
The hon. Member questions the Government's approach to energy costs, citing high industrial electricity prices and job losses in various industries due to high energy costs and carbon taxes. He calls for a plan to prevent further British job losses in energy-intensive sectors and asks if the Minister will listen to Unite’s head on replacing lost jobs.
Minister reply
The Conservative party's record is criticised for failing to support foundational industries, resulting in significant job losses in North Sea operations and ceramics. The current Government aims to develop an industrial strategy supporting manufacturing, reaching net zero by 2030, which includes more support through the energy supercharger scheme than provided previously.
Sarah Coombes
Lab
West Bromwich
Question
Can the Minister set out how the clean power 2030 action plan will make industrial energy costs cheaper and help us drive growth in the west midlands manufacturing industry?
Minister reply
Electrifying industry is crucial. The Climate Change Committee has said that that is the route and that 61% of industry will need to be electrified. We need to make sure we do that. We are looking through the spending review process, as I am sure she would expect, at how we can support industries to make that change to electric and how we can help with some of the capital costs, which will lead to lower costs in the longer term.
Bernard Jenkin
Con
Harwich and North Essex
Question
Why is it better, according to the Government, to import gas from Norway instead of developing our own North sea gas fields?
Minister reply
The North sea fields are a declining basin. We lost 70,000 jobs under the previous Government. Something like only one in 10 of the licences that have been approved over recent years have actually amounted to anything, because of the difficulties of a declining basin. The impact on prices of a very small amount of the global mix coming from the North sea would be zero. It would not change a penny in the costs we would pay.
Orkney and Shetland
Question
When the Government consider what they will have to do to support energy-intensive industries such as distilling, will the Minister consider that the Scotch whisky industry in particular is critical to the maintenance of economic activity and good-quality jobs in some of the most remote and economically fragile communities in this country?
Minister reply
We are obviously keen to do what we can to support the Scottish whisky industry. I have been to see it and understand how important it is. The definitions of energy-intensive industries were developed under the previous Government, and we have no immediate plans to change those, but I will take away the right hon. Gentleman’s point and look into it.
Mark Pritchard
Con
The Wrekin
Question
On net zero, there is a national consensus on making the environment better, creating green jobs and improving energy security, but will the Minister recognise that for many people, consumers and companies out there—particularly small businesses—there is too much happening, too soon and too fast? Rather than having regressive and punitive taxes on industry and small businesses, there should be more education and more incentives to change consumer and company behaviour.
Minister reply
We want to tread lightly on people’s lives, and of course we do not want to inflict regressive and punitive taxation. We want to make sure we are supporting industry and business, and we are looking at how we can help to incentivise the changes that we need to see.
Seamus Logan
SNP
Aberdeenshire North and Moray East
Question
Despite Scotland’s growing abundance of potentially cheap renewable energy, businesses in Scotland’s energy sector are dealt a double blow by high energy costs in production and extortionate transmission charges. Will the Minister bear in mind that this is entirely linked to the high cost of producing energy?
Minister reply
I think it was probably the Minister for Energy, my hon. Friend the Member for Rutherglen (Michael Shanks), who gave that assurance to the hon. Gentleman, and he is looking at all these issues. We have a very complex energy system. We are trying to make it as cost-effective as we can, and sustainable in the long term, to give us the energy security that we all need.
Desmond Swayne
Con
New Forest West
Question
A vital ingredient of any net zero policy is an understanding of the word ‘net’. Ultimately, we are going to have to grapple with technology that we have had for over a century to remove carbon directly from the air, aren’t we?
Minister reply
We are happy to look at a range of options. The whole point of the clean energy plan is that we are using a very diverse range of interventions, some of which are more high-tech and for the future, and some of which are well established. We need that mix.
Ellie Chowns
Green
North Herefordshire
Question
Given the huge economic and environmental effects of burning fossil fuels, it is clear that the future of energy has to be clean, green, cheap renewables, plus energy efficiency. The Government can decouple the price of electricity from gas so that the true costs of generating electricity are reflected in the price that consumers pay; and implement a carbon tax to assist industries with the just transition from fossil fuels.
Minister reply
The hon. Lady is right to point out that there is a lot of misinformation in this space, and it is often used by the Conservatives to hide their own failings in government. Of course, the energy price hike that we had was partly because the previous Government had not delivered the security that we needed in our home-grown energy supply and storage. We are looking at all options to make sure that we have the right systems in place going forward.
John Cooper
Con
Dumfries and Galloway
Question
INEOS reports that it is paying £127 million a year in carbon taxes, rising to £2 billion by 2030. Is it not the case that we are seeing the cascade of jobs losses because Labour has made decarbonisation deindustrialisation?
Minister reply
I think the hon. Gentleman knows that his own party are the experts on deindustrialisation, which we saw significantly across all parts of our manufacturing sector, including at INEOS. I regularly meet INEOS, as do the Secretary of State and other colleagues, and we are looking at what we can do to support the sector.
Edinburgh West
Question
My constituents in Edinburgh West depend on energy-intensive industries for their livelihoods: defence, whisky and Grangemouth. How can the Minister reassure people who are already suffering because of high domestic energy prices that the situation will not be made worse by losing jobs in those industries?
Minister reply
The hon. Lady is right to raise these challenges, which we are trying to grapple with. We are looking at how we can provide support on energy prices and other aspects for energy-intensive industries. Of course, the energy-intensive industries that qualify for the supercharger are getting significantly increased support from April, which will be helpful, but we recognise that that does not go far enough, and we need to do more.
Blake Stephenson
Con
Mid Bedfordshire
Question
Over 1,000 jobs at Luton’s Stellantis plant have been lost. If the Minister does not agree with us on net zero, does she agree with the general secretary of the GMB who says that the Government’s energy policies amount to exporting jobs and importing virtue?
Minister reply
The hon. Gentleman is raising an important point about how we need to balance the transition towards a greener economy while supporting industries and workers in the short term.
Jim Shannon
DUP
Strangford
Question
Given that manufacturing represents less than 10% of the UK economy but 16% in Northern Ireland and supports about one in four families there, how can the Government offer support to such industries facing rising energy prices?
Minister reply
The hon. Member is right to raise this issue. The figure for manufacturing in Northern Ireland is high at around 15-16%. Yesterday, I was with trade unionists from Shorts Brothers—Spirit AeroSystems—to discuss the importance of retaining those jobs and addressing sectarian divides through good employment opportunities. We will continue working together to protect the manufacturing base, supported by £2 billion for the automotive sector and £1 billion for aerospace in the Budget.
Government Response
The Government recognise the challenges high energy prices pose to UK businesses, especially in the ceramics sector. We are working closely with Ceramics UK and local Stoke MPs to support the industry through our clean power 2030 target, which aims for long-term sustainable price reductions by using more electricity and less fossil fuel. The British Industry Supercharger scheme is already providing exemptions from certain renewable energy policies costs for eligible firms, although not all ceramics companies qualify yet. We have announced pro-growth reforms to unlock £40 million of private investment annually in clean energy infrastructure. We are committed to a modern industrial strategy that will drive growth and create good jobs, but the Minister acknowledges the urgency and importance of addressing immediate concerns raised by Mr Snell.
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