A senior UK Government minister is under pressure from his own dad to back the Press and Journal’s campaign to give north and north-east families a fair deal on energy prices.
Di Alexander – father of Chief Treasury Secretary Danny Alexander and chairman of Lochaber Housing Association – is lobbying his son and other ministers to deliver “natural justice” on power prices.
He praised the Press and Journal’s campaign to end a 2p per unit surcharge which costs families in northern Scotland hundreds of pounds extra a year for electricity.
Mr Alexander senior and other north campaigners highlighted figures which show more than 70% of people in Orkney and the Western Isles suffer as a result of fuel poverty during talks with Energy Secretary Ed Davey last week.
Last night he confirmed he had also spoken to his son and Scottish Energy Secretary Fergus Ewing about the issue, and said they were “sympathetic”.
He is calling on all political parties to commit to “put the matter right”, saying that many in the north were “suffering real hardship” because of the current charging system.
Meanwhile, SNP MSP Dave Thompson revealed yesterday that he had distributed a survey to 13,000 homes in his Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch constituency with the aim of finding out people’s views on the surcharge.
Danny Alexander told the Press and Journal last month that he had ordered Treasury officials to investigate ways to ease the burden on hard-pressed consumers.
His father – who has been involved in Lochaber Housing Association since 1988 and previously criticised the coalition government’s “bedroom tax” – said he had been told by Westminster sources that legal commitments would make any change complicated.
However, he insisted that campaigners in the north would continue to press for reform.
“Good on the P&J for taking this issue up,” he said.
“Ed Davey and his officials have given us a fair hearing. The minister was sympathetic to the case we’re making.
“We want the parties to commit themselves to putting the matter right. It would seem to you and I that the politicians could sort it out.
“It’s natural justice as far as we’re concerned. People are suffering real hardship as a result of this.”
Asked if he had spoken to his son about it, Mr Alexander said: “Yes I have. I had a meeting with Danny, and a meeting with Fergus. They’re both very sympathetic.
“We’re going to go to Ofgem and SSE next. We’re determined to shake the tree.”
Since the Press and journal launched the campaign in October, both the regulator Ofgem and the Department of Energy and Climate Change have pledged to investigate whether the system could be changed.