Christopher Chope – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Christopher Chope on 2016-03-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, if she will make it the policy of the Government that electricity customers across the UK should pay the same for electricity transportation.

Andrea Leadsom

Electricity network charges vary by region and reflect the costs of running the network in that area and the number of consumers that those costs are spread over. The Government does not plan to move to national network charging, as the current cost reflective approach helps to ensure efficient use of the network and keeps overall costs down for bill payers across Great Britain. In contrast, national pricing risks an overall increase in network costs by weakening each network company’s local accountability to its customers, as well as making charges less transparent. On 23 October 2015, Ofgem published a report on the regional differences in network charges, which found no compelling case from a regulatory perspective to move to a national network charge. The report is available at:

https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/publications-and-updates/regional-differences-network-charges.

The Government will continue to consider any evidence that is presented.

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