Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Helen Goodman and Lord Barker of Battle(11 years, 6 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text
Helen Goodman (Bishop Auckland) (Lab)
When the Government changed the rules on feed-in tariffs, 100 jobs were lost in my constituency. What calculation has been made of the number of jobs that will be lost if, as in the view of the Minister of State, no more onshore wind turbines are to be built?
Gregory Barker
We have big ambitions for microgeneration and distributed energy, but only if it provides real value for money for consumers who pay the bills and will be buying that technology. We can do that if we provide a long-term stable framework, which is what we are doing. The feed-in tariff was never designed as a job creation scheme in itself; it was designed to drive a mass take-up of distributed energy.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Helen Goodman and Lord Barker of Battle
Gregory Barker
My hon. Friend is absolutely right; small and beautiful is our vision for a much more decentralised energy economy. I would be delighted to come to Enfield to see the real strides that people are making to achieve that.
Helen Goodman (Bishop Auckland) (Lab)
Earlier we heard the Secretary of State boasting about his experience of financial markets. The rules of the Office for National Statistics about how to classify things are absolutely clear. It is more than 20 years since private finance initiatives were set up, so why has he been so incompetent in the way that he has structured the green investment bank, which has been classified in the public sector, giving the Treasury the excuse to delay its borrowing powers for four years?