RISHI Sunak had a good outing for his first Prime Ministers Question Time. He made it very clear that he will be honouring the 2019 manifesto on which the Conservative Party was elected. That is the mandate he has, and he intends to deliver on it.

One manifesto promise raised in the House was the commitment not to allow fracking until and unless it has been proved safe.

The Prime Minister confirmed that commitment. Clearly there is still huge pressure to increase domestic gas supplies following events in Ukraine.

While the science has demonstrated fracking can be done safely, it’s now unclear what further steps might now be required by government for fracking to be permitted. In 2021 the Oil and Gas Authority corrected its report on seismic activity resulting from fracking from large to small.

There are also now new methods to assess, manage and mitigate these risks. The hard facts are, however much we do to ramp up renewable energy which we should, we will still be dependent on gas for some time.

Relying on imported gas pumps four times the amount of carbon into the atmosphere compared to home grown shale.

The financial statement planned for October 31 is to be delayed by two weeks until November 17. Markets are beginning to stabilise and interest rates and mortgage rates are plateauing and now projected to come down.

The pound benefited on the appointment of the new prime minister, falling back only slightly when this delay was announced. Wholesale energy prices are falling and the wholesale price of gas is now less than it was pre Covid. In the end the energy subsidy may cost the government less than it had feared.

It will take time for these improvements to feed through to bills, but if the increase in costs can be stemmed that will be welcome.

There will inevitably be some bumps along the way. I am lobbying government to do all it can to ensure benefits are passed to consumers as fast as possible. It cannot be right to trap consumers in fixed term deals when the underlying costs have fallen.

The Stamp Duty Land Tax (Reduction) Bill had its second reading on Monday. MPs were keen to point out that the benefit of this bill reducing stamp duty on low value property sales should be for those trying to buy their first homes rather than the private rented sector.

This is a bit of a conundrum. Clearly this is aimed at, and should be primarily for, buyers getting their feet on the bottom of the housing ladder, but it is the private rented sector that provides much of the social housing stock which we so desperately need.

Tuesday was more heated with the introduction of the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill. This bill will remove all EU law embedded in UK law with some exceptions enabling the UK to establish its own regulatory system. The concerns raised related to a fear that this might water down employment law rights, environmental protection and consumer protections derived under EU law.

That is not the intention. The bill sets out a framework under which each department is required to review the relevant law as it now stands and introduces new UK appropriate simpler regulation to replace it to come into effect when the embedded EU law comes to an end.

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