Charles Walker pays tribute to the valuable role paid by pensioners in our society and whilst welcoming the uprating of the state pension argues that it is not enough.

Mr. Charles Walker (Broxbourne) (Con): Normally, this House adopts an austere voice when it debates pensioners. However, I want to start by adopting a celebratory voice to talk about pensioners, because if we had no pensioners, we would have to invent them. In my constituency, and those of my hon. Friend the Member for North-East Hertfordshire (Mr. Heald) and the Minister, pensioners provide a huge public and civic service. There are armies of grandparents dropping off and picking up the children from school and providing babysitting services during the day and in the evenings so that hard-working parents can have a drink at the pub or go out for dinner. Grandparents are hugely important in that role.

I hope that all our constituencies have flourishing charitable sectors. Which people are the mainstay of charitable organisations? By and large, they are pensioners—people over the ages of 60 or 65 who are fully engaged with their communities. I am thinking of meals on wheels or taking other elderly people to hospital appointments. Again, I say that if we did not have pensioners, we would have to invent them. The same applies to political parties. I am sure that my constituency is like—

Madam Deputy Speaker (Sylvia Heal): Order. I understand why the hon. Gentleman wants to make flattering remarks about the necessity of pensioners in our society; perhaps he would now be kind enough to move on to the order that we are now debating.

Mr. Walker: But that is exactly the point, Madam Deputy Speaker. If you will just bear with me for a little longer, I will relate it to what we are discussing.

Madam Deputy Speaker: I have been quite lenient in allowing discussion on the matter. I think that we understand the hon. Gentleman’s point and perhaps he could now address his remarks to the order.

Mr. Walker: I will, Madam Deputy Speaker.

It is important that I make two observations about pensioners and their role in our communities, and explain why it is so important that we value that role. We in this place can never, ever do enough for pensioners. If I were Prime Minister, I would very much like to uprate the annual pension by £100 or £200 a week. However, I am not the Prime Minister and I appreciate that that would be impossible to do, whoever I was. I welcome the Government’s announcement that they are uprating the state pension, but it is, frankly, not generous: £100 or £150 is the bare minimum. Therefore, we in this place constantly need to ask ourselves what more we can do for the retired. Are we doing enough? Of course, the answer will be that we are never, ever, doing enough, but we need to ask ourselves the question.

It is important that when we discuss pensions, we consider the many issues facing pensioners today. We understand that although the value of their savings is not deteriorating, the interest on them is going down. A little more than eight months ago we have interest rates of over 5 per cent.; now, we have interest rates of 1 per cent. That is reducing pensioners’ income. A few months ago, we had historically high petrol prices; again, that took a disproportionate amount of pensioners’ income. As we have discussed, one index of inflation—the retail prices index percentage—puts pensioner inflation at 12.2 per cent. not the accepted percentage that we live by in this place. We have also seen year-on-year above-inflation increases in council tax, which have a disproportionate impact on pensioners and their incomes. A couple of hon. Members alluded to that.

There is also the cost of utilities. The cost of electricity and gas in the wholesale markets has come down, but that has not yet fed through into the pricing of utilities on the doorsteps of pensioners. I am a relatively wealthy Member of Parliament, and I can afford to wait for utility prices to come down. I do not like waiting—nobody does—but I can afford to do so. For many pensioners, this is becoming very serious. We are having one of the coldest winters for 20 years. I congratulate the Government wholeheartedly on recognising that, but it is very important that they continue to place pressure on the utility companies to get their act together in this respect.

Pensioners are absolutely at the heart of all our communities, and we owe them a huge debt of thanks and gratitude. Much of what they do goes unpaid and unrecognised, so we in this place have an obligation, year on year, to ensure that we are doing as much as possible for them.

2.38 pm

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