Speeches by Crichton.

“There is also a national expert advice scheme in Scotland. Could we benefit from that in England?”

“What is wrong?”

“That is exactly where I was going next. You talked about changing the performance rating of houses to being a carbon rating, and it rang a distant bell from evidence that we had some months ago about green mortgages, so that mortgages are more easily accessible if you had upgraded your house.”

“You mentioned earlier a scheme in Scotland.”

“You mentioned earlier a scheme in Scotland.”

“Thank you all for coming in. One of the most striking things to come out of this session, Geraldine, is that the high-energy end of the transition to net zero is not at the table. Andrew, you were in Government. Does it surprise you that they are not in?”

“What is wrong?”

“There is a big gap in trust here among consumers and industry in transmitters, generators and Government. You have given one example of how that could be filled by local government. Are there other things that could be done?”

“You were very lucid about the up-front costs of this investment, but are the Government being up-front about that? All we hear is, “This investment will reduce your bills,” but it is actually going to increase their bills.”

“That is interesting for communities and consumers. They see the glossy brochures, the consultations and the focus groups from big companies, but they think, “You are doing it because you are going to make a big profit.” Is there another way of communicating this transition to people, or a way that it will be trusted?”

“To the A75 and the A77, add the A9, which is the link from the Highlands to Scotland. For 25 years we have been waiting for it to be dualled; the SNP has failed to do that. The Scottish Government cannot make the ferries work and they cannot make the road work. Can the Secretary of State push them into action?”

“Dr Roy, I have no wish for you to be sitting in the stocks but you are the only company on the panel now. We have been told in evidence that the ombudsman’s own metrics show that the resolution involves small payments to customers, payable by the suppliers. Somebody described it to us as a sausage machine designed to g…”

“If you had to score the ombudsman on a one to 10 scale, where one means it is no good and 10 means it is the consumer champion of the world—”

“What surprised me when we started reading into this is that the ombudsman is funded by the very companies it rules on. There is quite a high level of low-cost resolution, which saves the companies money and saves the ombudsman hassle, I guess, when it has only 380 staff to deal with a large number of complaints. Are co…”

“Katie, it is surprising that it is not on a statutory footing. How does the protection of energy consumers through the ombudsman compare with other areas?”

“Would you support what Katie, or Katie’s organisation, has said about putting the ombudsman on a statutory basis?”

“Thank you all for coming in. I will pick up on what Katie mentioned about the ombudsman and the structure of the ombudsman. I will do that with you first, Alex. First of all, thank you for the work citizens advice bureaux do throughout the land. They have great services and they deal with the nightmare of overbilling, …”

“Do you have any powers that you can use to make sure that suppliers do what the ombudsman wants them to do?”

“Beth, Jonathan, how can you help them?”

“Ed, Jonathan, naming names or without naming names, do you have repeat offenders? Is there any evidence that some suppliers just do not listen to you and do not remedy?”