I want to say a massive thanks to everyone who is trying to reconnect people across Northumberland. It's been another busy day trying to get generators to those who are still disconnected. I've visited many of our communities without power, alongside meetings with Northern PowerGrid, the National Farmers Union, Northumberland County Council.
I have two key priorities:
- Making sure Northern PowerGrid continue to reconnect the dozens of substations and poles to outlying areas. The latest information I have received from them is that they have around 700 jobs to complete.
- Sourcing of interim generators to those who are having to continue to wait. I am aware that Northern Powegrid estimate it will be several days for some people to get reconnected, and therefore generators are essential. We are working with Gregor and his team from Forest and Garden in Hexham. There are hundreds of engineers from across the UK helping to restore the network.
There is more to do but this is a massive effort by all emergency and many other services, including police, fire brigade and the NFU helping in multiple ways. The Local Resilience Forum have declared a major incident in Northumberland and as a result more support on the way.
I have been out again this afternoon sourcing and sorting generators, visiting communities and doing home visits this afternoon and evening. We have not had a storm like Storm Arwen in a generation, but we will get through this.
Compensation
Following meetings with Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng, Ofgem has today removed the compensation limit to allow customers affected by Storm Arwen to claim up to £140 per day they are without power. The previous maximum cap of £700 will no longer apply.
Welfare support
Northern Powergrid have issued the following statement:
𝑁𝑜𝑟𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑛 𝑃𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟𝑔𝑟𝑖𝑑 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑣𝑖𝑑𝑒 𝑓𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑖𝑎𝑙 𝑎𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑎𝑛𝑦 𝑑𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑐 𝑐𝑢𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑟 𝑤ℎ𝑜 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑜𝑓𝑓 𝑠𝑢𝑝𝑝𝑙𝑦 𝑜𝑛 29 𝑁𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 2021 𝑜𝑟 𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑤ℎ𝑜 𝑛𝑒𝑒𝑑𝑠 𝑖𝑡𝑠 ℎ𝑒𝑙𝑝. 𝑇ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑖𝑛𝑐𝑙𝑢𝑑𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑏𝑙𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑠𝑡𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑎𝑙𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑛𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑎𝑐𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑚𝑜𝑑𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑓𝑜𝑜𝑑 (𝑢𝑝 𝑡𝑜 £15 𝑝𝑒𝑟 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑜𝑛 𝑝𝑒𝑟 𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑙). 𝐼𝑡 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑎𝑙𝑠𝑜 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑏𝑢𝑡𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑏𝑙𝑦 𝑖𝑛𝑐𝑢𝑟𝑟𝑒𝑑 𝑐𝑜𝑠𝑡𝑠; 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑒𝑥𝑎𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑒 𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑎 𝑐𝑢𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑟 𝑎𝑟𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒𝑠 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑖𝑟 𝑜𝑤𝑛 𝑏𝑎𝑐𝑘-𝑢𝑝 𝑔𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑜𝑟. 𝑁𝑜𝑟𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑛 𝑃𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟𝑔𝑟𝑖𝑑 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑑𝑒𝑟 𝑒𝑎𝑐ℎ 𝑐𝑢𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑟’𝑠 𝑐𝑖𝑟𝑐𝑢𝑚𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒𝑠 𝑜𝑛 𝑎 𝑐𝑎𝑠𝑒-𝑏𝑦-𝑐𝑎𝑠𝑒 𝑏𝑎𝑠𝑖𝑠. 𝐴𝑙𝑙 𝑜𝑓 𝑖𝑡𝑠 𝑣𝑢𝑙𝑛𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑏𝑙𝑒 𝑐𝑢𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑟𝑠 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑏𝑒 𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑔𝑖𝑏𝑙𝑒. 𝐶𝑢𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑟𝑠 𝑤ℎ𝑜 𝑟𝑒𝑞𝑢𝑖𝑟𝑒 𝑎𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑠ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑒𝑚𝑎𝑖𝑙 𝑆𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑚𝐴𝑟𝑤𝑒𝑛@𝑛𝑜𝑟𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑛𝑝𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟𝑔𝑟𝑖𝑑.𝑐𝑜𝑚 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑁𝑜𝑟𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑛 𝑃𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟𝑔𝑟𝑖𝑑 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑏𝑒 𝑖𝑛 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑐𝑡 𝑎𝑠 𝑞𝑢𝑖𝑐𝑘𝑙𝑦 𝑎𝑠 𝑖𝑡 𝑐𝑎𝑛 𝑡𝑜 𝑎𝑔𝑟𝑒𝑒 ℎ𝑜𝑤 𝑖𝑡 𝑐𝑎𝑛 ℎ𝑒𝑙𝑝.
If you or someone you know is vulnerable or has an urgent issue, please contact me on 01434 239 205, or on guy.opperman@parliament.uk. My team and I are here to help, and will not stop until everyone is reconnected.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask.
