King’s Speech
Baroness Griffin of Princethorpe Excerpts(3 weeks, 6 days ago)
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Baroness Griffin of Princethorpe (Lab)
My Lords, my arthritis is not very good today, so I am sure your Lordships will forgive me for speaking while seated. I will focus on energy, and I warmly welcome the speeches of my noble friends Lord Whitehead and Lady Curran, and that of the noble Earl, Lord Russell. I add my congratulations to all our wonderful maiden speakers.
After the second fossil fuel crisis in five years, it is clear that clean power is the only route to energy security. Energy independence is a vital goal of national security, as shown by recent events in the Middle East. This requires increased production of homegrown, clean and affordable British energy. Faster action on the energy transition and climate change will help address many of the country’s most pressing challenges, including long-term cost of living, energy security and local job opportunities, and will have many co-benefits, such as cleaner air and warmer homes.
The energy independence Bill must strengthen us against energy price shocks for the long term and create thousands of clean, green apprenticeships and jobs. As my noble friends said, we need to get off the oil price rollercoaster. Energy independence must mean affordable energy for consumers, including private renters, not just more generation. We must secure a just transition for workers from old industries to new, and place tackling energy poverty at the heart of all relevant legislation. I wrote the energy poverty manifesto, which was adopted by the European Parliament and the European Commission. Now as then, no one should have to choose between eating and heating or cooling their homes.
To touch on culture very briefly, I congratulate Coventry City FC on their promotion and say, “Play up, Sky Blues”.
Low-carbon Heat Networks
Baroness Griffin of Princethorpe Excerpts(1 month, 3 weeks ago)
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Baroness Curran
To ask His Majesty’s Government what plans they have to support the rollout of low carbon heat networks.
Baroness Griffin of Princethorpe (Lab)
My Lords, on behalf of my noble friend Lady Curran, and with her permission, I beg leave to ask the Question standing in her name on the Order Paper.
The Minister of State, Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (Lord Whitehead) (Lab)
The warm homes plan sets a new, ambitious target for heat network growth to meet 7% of heat demand by 2035 and an even greater amount by 2050. This ensures that households and businesses in dense areas can benefit from the cheapest clean heat for them, and that we are maximising the efficiency of our energy system. Alongside our other capital schemes, this Government will invest £1 billion in low-carbon heat networks over this Parliament, including through the green heat network fund and the heat network efficiency scheme. Heat network zoning will fundamentally transform the development of new heat networks in England; it will provide the tools to ensure that they are built in the right places, and give investors and developers the certainty they need to bring forward more ambitious schemes.
Baroness Griffin of Princethorpe (Lab)
I thank my noble friend the Minister and welcome the warm homes plan, but we need ambition. Only infrastructure heats homes. Clean, low-carbon heat networks can match gas boiler costs. Instead of every house having its own gas boiler, you have one central source of heat—a big heat pump, a river, a disused coal mine or even a data centre—and you pipe that heat through insulated underground pipes to thousands of homes. I ask my noble friend: when do the Government intend to treat heat networks as essential national infrastructure?
Lord Whitehead (Lab)
My noble friend is absolutely right about the importance, cheapness and flexibility of heat networks for the future. Indeed, the Government are taking that flexibility—that essential nature—of heat networks very seriously in their ambitions for them to provide something like 20% of total heat by 2050. Among other things, the Government are doing that through the green heat network fund, to bring forward investment, and to make sure, through the heat network efficiency scheme, that existing heat networks are brought up to scratch with the newer ones that are coming on stream.