Oral Answers to Questions

Bill Esterson Excerpts

Tuesday 10th February 2026 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I call the Chair of the Energy Security and Net Zero Committee.

[Bill Esterson (Sefton Central) (Lab)]

The costs of new infrastructure are a pressure on bills, as the Secretary of State knows. He deserves enormous credit for the results of the allocation round 7 auction today, in which the strike price of renewables was less than half what it would have been with new gas. What is the approach to rolling out extra grid—and, indeed, maintaining the existing grid—which is so crucial to the plans, given that there is so much to make up for following the failure to invest over the many years since privatisation?

[Ed Miliband]

My hon. Friend is right to draw attention to this morning’s auction, which saw record amounts of solar power. It is the cheapest form of power that we could possibly have in this country, and it costs less than half the price of building and operating new gas. On the point about infrastructure, he is right that we inherited a terrible legacy, and we are building the new infrastructure that we need.