Earl Russell
Main Page: Earl Russell (Liberal Democrat - Excepted Hereditary)Department Debates - View all Earl Russell's debates with the HM Treasury
(1 day, 9 hours ago)
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Lord Livermore (Lab)
I am grateful to my noble friend for bringing this to the House’s attention. I absolutely agree with what he said and am happy to confirm the figure that he set out. As he knows and we all know, investment was a particular failure of the previous Government over the last 14 years. When we won the election, private sector investment was the lowest in the G7. Public sector investment was no better and was set to fall again, from 2.5% to 1.7% of GDP. We have increased capital investment by £120 billion over this Parliament, ruling out a return to the austerity of the past. As my noble friend said, that is incredibly important for increasing growth and productivity in the economy.
The OBR has estimated that the eventual growth impact of this increase in capital investment will add 1.4% to GDP. Cutting this now and returning to austerity would be the worst thing that we could do for growth and the very definition of short-termism, yet that is precisely what previous Chancellors with previous fiscal rules have done. In the years following the financial crisis, austerity took demand out of the economy when it was most needed, undermining investment in critical infrastructure, weakening productivity and choking off growth. We will not repeat the mistakes of the past.
Earl Russell (LD)
My Lords, the Climate Change Committee was clear last week that the cost of another oil price crisis would be greater than the cost of reaching net zero by 2050, so these Benches fully support the need to roll out renewables at a faster rate. However, we continue to have high energy bills and there is a need to decouple gas, so I ask the Minister what further action the Government are considering in this space, so that we can bring down energy bills.
The Minister spoke about the need to target support so that it reaches the most vulnerable. I briefly want to ask whether he agrees that there is a need for the Government to do a greater piece of work on data, so that they can identify those people who are in most need of support with energy bills.
Lord Livermore (Lab)
I am grateful to the noble Earl for his question and his consistent support for the action we are taking on renewables. He is absolutely right that it is important that the Government enable the country to take control of its own energy supply. As he says and I have said, we are continuing to invest in renewables by lifting the ban on onshore wind and running the biggest ever floating offshore wind auction last year.
On household energy bills, I have said that contingency planning is taking place for every eventuality. I agree with what he says about data, and of course that work is ongoing. It is very important that we keep costs down for everyone, while providing support for those who need it most and acting within our fiscal rules to keep inflation and interest rates as low as possible.