Bim Afolami MP, Member of Parliament for Hitchin & Harpenden, warned that dealing with the cost of energy is the central way to tackle the inflation which is driving a cost of living challenge for households across the country. The Parliamentarian was speaking during a debate on the Energy (oil and gas) profits levy as part of Parliament’s consideration of the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement.
Mr Afolami spoke of the global pressures on energy demand from wider industrialisation, coupled with the pressures on supply caused by lower investment in oil and gas and by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He warned that every economic expansion in the world over the last 300 years has been underpinned by cheap energy and that economic and fiscal policy are dependent on it.
Speaking about delivering more renewable energy to help reduce energy costs, Mr Afolami said that the problem is not investment but in slow delivery of sustainable energy projects – pointing to the barriers and delays in getting nuclear, solar and wind projects off the ground. The MP added in the Commons, “We must start to take seriously the issues of delivering much more renewable energy on our own soil, and of exploring oil and gas in the North Sea to the maximum we can. A lot of the other economic debates we have are largely irrelevant in the context of that energy challenge.”
Reflecting on tackling the cost of energy to bring down inflation, Bim Afolami MP said,
“The inflationary and cost of living challenges that we are currently dealing with have a number of underlying causes, but at their heart is an energy price spike which is impacting economies the world over. In Parliament, I have been working on renewable and sustainable energy policy for some time and as Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Renewable and Sustainable Energy and a recently-elected member of the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Select Committee, I can see the potential for sustainable projects to help us tackle inflation with reliable cheap energy and the broader need to ramp up our production of homegrown energy supplies.
“It is clear that tackling the cost of energy is at the core of tackling inflation. And without tackling inflation we cannot expect to generate the money from the private sector and private enterprise that the Government needs to deliver investment in public services. Therefore it is absolutely essential that the Autumn Statement delivers on driving down energy costs as a central mission.”
