Energy Grid Resilience

Lord Bellingham Excerpts

Tuesday 6th May 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Lab)]

My Lords, in relation to SMRs, I agree with my noble friend that we need to get on with it. I hope and expect that we will have some decisions very soon. I hope that that will set the foundation for future investment in the SMR programme.

As far as west London is concerned, my noble friend is absolutely right to point out the challenges there, and the fact that we basically inherited a system where there had not been sufficient investment in the grid and local distribution network. In relation to Heathrow, let us await the interim and final reports of the review that we have established to see what lessons can be learned. As I said earlier to the noble Earl, Lord Russell, the fact is that we expect there to be a major investment in our whole grid system between now and 2030. It will be essential to meet our clean power targets. I think that will give industry the confidence to invest in the areas where we wish it to do so.

[Lord Bellingham (Con)]

My Lords, further to the question from the noble Lord, Lord Berkeley, about solar panels on the roofs of new houses, will the Minister also look at prioritising solar panels on the roofs of shops, supermarkets and warehouses? Quite often one goes on to an industrial estate and sees a lot of flat roofs but no solar panels and surely that is a much better option than locating solar arrays on top- class agricultural land?

[Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Lab)]

My Lords, I totally agree with the noble Lord’s substantive point, and these matters are being discussed in government at the moment. On the use of farmland, he knows that if we were to achieve the whole of our solar ambition, we would not use more than 1% of agricultural land. We will continue to see solar projects on agricultural land, but I want to see much greater development on industrial premises and in domestic houses.