Duncan Hames, MP for Chippenham (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Duncan Hames, MP for Chippenham

8:20am Thursday 14th July 2011 in News

Last week it became clear that, while we remain on the oil and gas price hook, my constituents, along with families across the UK, will continue to endure the impact of rising energy prices on their household bills.

I was therefore pleased to back the Energy Bill which is currently making its passage through Parliament with a degree of cross-party support.

The bill introduces the Green Deal, which will give people the opportunity to make the changes they need to improve the energy efficiency to their homes, without having to pay an upfront fee.

Instead, these adjustments will be paid for by the subsequent savings that households will achieve on their energy bills.

It is also important that we boost competition in the energy market.

Having already lifted some of the regulations that would have been a barrier to the growth of smaller energy companies, Chris Huhne MP, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, last week held a summit with new energy suppliers and small energy companies such as Chippenham’s Good Energy, to discuss the ways in which we could boost competition for energy customers.

With 99 out of 100 houses powered by just six big energy companies, it is essential that smaller, greener companies are able to contest the market.

With low-carbon dioxide energy in mind, I was delighted to join both Good Energy and the South West Regional Development Agency at the Business Green Leaders Award 2011, to see the Wave Hub project, on which I had worked, win the Sustainable Project of the Year.

The Wave Hub is based 16 kilometres off the north shore of Cornwall and can be connected to wave energy devices while also being linked up to the UK’s energy grid network.

It was a pleasant surprise to be shortlisted for their Politician of the Year, which was awarded to the Chair of the Climate Change Select Committee.

I ended the week in Westminster by making a plea in the House of Commons for a debate on media regulation so that the ‘fit and proper person’ test might be applied in light of the recent revelations about the News of the World.

By the weekend, the Leader of the Opposition had told the BBC that he stood ready to make it happen.

My next constituency surgeries will on tomorrow from 4pm to 5pm in Hilperton Village Hall and on Saturday from 9.30am to 11am in Bradford on Avon Library.