Charles Walker calls for measures to tackle rising energy costs which have a disproportionate effect on pensioners and for measures to encourage a better take-up rate of benefits.

Mr. Charles Walker (Broxbourne) (Con): Thank you for calling me to speak towards the tail end of the debate, Madam Deputy Speaker.

I listened closely to the speech of the right hon. Member for Manchester, Gorton (Sir Gerald Kaufman), who made a number of telling points. The first was that the old will always be with us. Of course they will. It is incumbent on politicians—yes, we are politicians with differing views—to ensure that, more often than not, we get it right when looking after those who in the main have given a huge amount to society throughout their working lives.

We can have political differences over how that is done, but there is not a single politician in the House—on the Government, Conservative or Liberal Democrat Benches—whether in government or in opposition, who does not have at the core of their beliefs a desire to improve the outlook for pensioners. Therefore, I am not going to be partisan in this brief contribution.

Without doubt, pensioners face serious problems right now. In the main, that has to do with problems afflicting the global economy. Fuel prices are going up. A large amount of pensioners’ income is spent on fuel, so that increase is hitting them in the pocket right now. Fuel prices are going up, so the cost of food production is going up. That means that food prices are going up, which is also hitting pensioners in the pocket right now. This is not something that will happen in a year’s time; it is ongoing and it is causing financial hardship. We in the House need to come up with a range of ideas to alleviate the immediate pressure on pensioners.

There is also the issue with the council tax. One could be a little more political about how the council tax has risen so far in excess of inflation, but I do not want to be political. We need to consider how the council tax impacts on pensioners.

The hon. Member for Morecambe and Lunesdale (Geraldine Smith) and the right hon. Member for Manchester, Gorton also referred to the fact that poverty goes beyond income. It is about a range of other, connected issues. As politicians, we need to examine them in the round.

Many elderly people are carers. In my constituency and in many others, elderly people are looking after loved ones who suffer from Alzheimer’s. That puts a huge strain on them emotionally and physically. We need to ensure that that strain is recognised and, wherever possible, alleviated.

One problem at local authority level is the ring-fencing of funds. Funds delivered to local authorities have to be spent in specific project areas. I would like far more local democracy to be introduced to local government, so that local government would live or die according to how it spent its money. For example, if the elderly population in Hertfordshire, the county in which I have a seat, were growing and more money needed to be spent on the elderly, and local politicians took the view that that is what needed to happen, the money could be found within existing budgets—I am not asking for more—and the argument could be made to redirect it towards alleviating the issues created around caring for people with Alzheimer’s.

There also needs to be far better co-operation between the NHS and local authorities on providing integrated support services. The NHS is often quick to push people off its books and out of its beds, back on to the local authority. Again, costing pressures are created, which need to be addressed urgently.

More generally, pensioner poverty can be linked to access to health care. Pensioners tend to have less access to cars. When a partner, husband or wife is taken into hospital, the distances that pensioners have to travel to see that person might be extremely large and expensive to cover, and pensioners may have to rely on either taxis, which, as we know, can cost a lot of money, or public transport, which may run infrequently. If they are lucky enough to have a car, often when they get to the hospital, they have to pay parking charges.

We need to consider how we deliver health care to our elderly, but also how the people who care for them when they are in hospital—for example, their children, husbands or partners—can visit them in a cost-effective and reasonable way.

David Taylor (North-West Leicestershire) (Lab/Co-op): The hon. Gentleman has omitted to mention one way of conveying elderly people to hospital to visit wives and other loved ones: community transport. In my area, where the general hospitals are in remote parts of Derby, Leicester and Burton, there are plenty of buses run by community transport schemes, at least part of whose purpose is to take elderly people to hospital for appointments or to visit friends or family. Perhaps Governments could do more to underpin such provision.

Mr. Walker: That is an important point. I think that it is incumbent on primary care trusts and regional health authorities to consider how hospitals as well as local government can play their part in the funding of such schemes. Our local authority, Broxbourne, provides a subsidised bus service to help people to travel to hospitals to visit friends and relatives. I should like such services to be provided in a more joined-up way, rather than just being provided by local authorities with a bit of spare cash. If the Government could give a lead, that would be a step in the right direction.

We have heard a great deal about access to benefits. I know that the Government are keen to ensure that pensioners receive the benefits to which they are entitled, and the Conservatives are as well, but the truth is that that is not happening. I do not think any of us can afford to rest on our laurels until the rate of benefit take-up by pensioners is nearly 100 per cent. Those benefits can make a real difference.

If we are to deal with many of the cost issues faced by pensioners, we must either increase their incomes or reduce their costs. There are a number of ways in which we could do either. First, we should consider the cost of energy production, in which the Government have a part to play. Oil still forms a fundamental part of the energy burned by our power stations. We must find ways of reducing the cost of energy, which would have an immediate impact on pensioners, and we must encourage energy providers to subsidise the services that they deliver to pensioners. Such subsidies need not continue indefinitely, but at a time when energy prices are high and fuel bills are rising by 20 or 30 per cent. a year, the situation requires urgent attention.

Many pensioners who could be described as middle-income earners have scrimped and saved throughout their lives to build a future for themselves. Their earnings may have been similar to those of people living opposite, but instead of buying new cars and taking holidays, they bought their homes and made provision for their old age. Too often when such people go into residential care, there is a price to pay in the form of confiscation of their assets. I do not have an immediate answer to the problem, but we need to address that element of unfairness in the system.

Pensioners are slow to anger. They are wise people who have lived long lives and have seen it all before, and they like to take a long-term view of big issues. They do not jump up and down like younger people such as me, getting frightfully agitated. However, pensioners are now becoming worried and angry. On 22 October there is to be a lobby of the House by a pensioners’ pressure group, and between now and then we need to make some progress in alleviating the immediate problem faced by pensioners: the increasing cost of day-to-day living. I know that the Government have taken the message on board, I know that we have taken it on board, and I hope that we can work collectively to ensure that that happens.

6.29 pm

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