Oral Answers to Questions
Graham Stuart Excerpts(1 month, 2 weeks ago)
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Miatta Fahnbulleh
My hon. Friend makes an important point. Local authorities will have a critical role to play in our warm homes plan. Under our warm homes schemes, we are offering substantial support to enable low-income households to transition to clean heat. For example, our warm homes social housing fund allows grant recipients to receive an additional £7,500 clean heat upgrade, and under our warm homes local grant, £15,000 is being provided on top of the baseline to enable all households, particularly low-income households, to benefit from clean heat.
Graham Stuart (Beverley and Holderness) (Con)
I know how on top of her brief the Minister is, so will she confirm that fewer than a third of council homes had an energy performance certificate C rating in 2010 compared with over 70% by last year? Less than 12% of homes in the UK had decent insulation in 2010 when Labour last left office and when the right hon. Member for Doncaster North (Ed Miliband), who is chuntering from a sedentary position, was in power, and more than 50% did by the time we left office. Will she commit to a faster rate of improvement under this Government than we ever saw under the previous Labour Government?
Miatta Fahnbulleh
I welcome the right hon. Member’s commitment to our plans to upgrade homes. However, he is trying to rewrite history, because when we look at the record of the previous Government, we see many failures, but the most abject and egregious was the failure to insulate enough homes to ensure that households were protected from price rises. That is the Conservatives’ legacy, and it is one we are determined to turn around. That is why we are committed to upgrading millions of homes across the country.
Oral Answers to Questions
Graham Stuart Excerpts(4 months, 1 week ago)
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Michael Shanks
My hon. Friend is right. Of course, the Great British Energy legislation is still going through Parliament at the moment; we hope that process will conclude soon, but in the meantime, hard work has been taking place to identify all the opportunities for Great British Energy to invest. Both Opposition parties—the SNP and the Conservatives—seem to oppose Great British Energy. Every single investment that it makes, every job that it creates, and every part of the supply chain that it incentivises will be delivered by Great British Energy against the SNP and the Conservatives, who have opposed it at every single stage. I ask them to rethink their position on what is a publicly owned champion to deliver for communities, create good, well-paid jobs, and deliver the clean power future that we need as a country.
Graham Stuart (Beverley and Holderness) (Con)
We heard from the chief executive officer of Great British Energy the other day. He said that it was not in his brief to cut bills by £300. What is Great British Energy for, then? It turned out that the jobs were not going to materialise either, so how will the Government make sure that we do not have some bureaucrat job-creation scheme in every region of the country, as the Minister’s Back Benchers are calling for, but actually have a company that invests in things that otherwise would not be invested in? Technologies such as wind and solar are already investable, so will Great British Energy focus on those things that need to be brought closer to market?
Michael Shanks
The right hon. Gentleman strongly makes the case for the importance of a publicly owned energy champion investing in parts of the energy system that are not currently getting that investment; I appreciate his recognition of that. What the interim chair of Great British Energy said very clearly—of course, it has not appointed a CEO yet—and what we have said consistently is that Great British Energy’s headquarters in Aberdeen will of course create jobs, but the majority of the jobs that will be created by that investment will come from the investment that Great British Energy makes in supply chains, in projects, and in developing the clean power that we need. Great British Energy will champion the industries that the right hon. Gentleman speaks about and deliver jobs in this country to reindustrialise communities, and Conservative Members will have to explain why they are against those jobs when they are created, including if they are created in the right hon. Gentleman’s constituency.
Draft Heat Networks (Market Framework) (Great Britain) Regulations 2025
Graham Stuart Excerpts(4 months, 3 weeks ago)
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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero (Miatta Fahnbulleh)
I beg to move,
That the Committee has considered the draft Heat Networks (Market Framework) (Great Britain) Regulations 2025.
The draft regulations were laid before the House on 28 November 2024. As heat networks have not yet been debated in this Parliament, I want to say a few words about the context for the draft regulations. Some 23% of the United Kingdom’s carbon emissions come from heating buildings, so decarbonising heat is key to reaching our net zero commitments and to reducing our reliance on international fossil fuels as we sprint to clean power by 2030. Heat pumps and heat networks are the two principal technologies that we believe will achieve that.
We believe that heat networks will be key to reducing bills for the next generation. Their energy can be drawn from large, efficient heat pumps or even from heat that would otherwise be dumped into the air, such as from data centres and waste incinerators. Heat networks, which have been proven internationally to provide affordable low-carbon heat, are especially suited to dense urban areas. The Government therefore expect that about 20% of the UK’s heat demand will be met by heat networks by 2050, up from 3% today. I have visited Mersey Heat in Liverpool and seen at first hand the huge potential of heat networks, not just to benefit consumers but, critically, to regenerate our urban centres.
Alongside growing the market for heat networks, we need to ensure that the 470,000 households supplied by heat networks today, as well as the many households that will be connected in future, can receive a fair deal as the market grows. One of the biggest barriers is that heat networks are inconsistently regulated. As people on heat networks cannot change their supplier, heat networks are effectively a monopoly with a captive market, which makes it harder to ensure that consumers are treated fairly. Through lots of conversations with consumer groups and through Government-commissioned research, we can identify gaps where the current market is not providing consumers with a fair service, heating is less reliable, suppliers are less transparent and it is harder for consumers to represent themselves or make complaints.
The current situation is clearly intolerable. These are not just consumers, but people trying to keep themselves healthy and warm and trying to live their life. I spoke to the Association for Decentralised Energy in October about the need to ensure that these people are at the very heart of the energy market transition that we need to make and at the very heart of how we think about heat networks.
The Energy Act 2023 provides powers for the Secretary of State to introduce regulations across Great Britain that will protect heat network consumers comparably to consumers of other regulated utilities. The draft regulations are the first step in introducing this regulatory framework. They will introduce an authorisation regime to be implemented by Ofgem, which will work in a similar way to the gas and electricity licensing regimes that Ofgem already regulates. They take an outcomes-based approach to reflect heat networks’ diversity of scale and their nascent market position.
The draft regulations will ban running a heat network without an authorisation. To phase in market regulation, existing heat networks will automatically be given an authorisation. The conditions for authorisation are set by either the Secretary of State or Ofgem and apply rules for running a heat network. Ofgem will be able to monitor compliance with the regulations and act where appropriate. Actions that Ofgem can take include issuing information notices for compliance data, investigating suspected non- compliance, inspecting commercial premises and issuing a range of orders to require remedial action. Consumer redress orders can also be issued to require that affected consumers be given compensation.
The draft regulations will require Ofgem to publish statements of policy on how powers are used. Penalties will be proportionate to the authorised person’s size and the scale of harm that their non-compliance has caused. Additionally, the draft regulations will give Ofgem powers to set standards of performance for heat networks, determining minimum performance levels of service provision to consumers.
Graham Stuart (Beverley and Holderness) (Con)
Like the Minister, I have visited heat networks around the country and I think they have a significant part to play. She has told us what she expects the heat network contribution to be in 2050, but can she tell us what she expects it to be in 2030? What steps are being taken now, other than changing the regulatory environment, to encourage the take-up of more heat networks around the country?
Miatta Fahnbulleh
We are running at the roll-out of heat networks. We want to get to 20%—for me, that is the minimum level to reach by 2050—and we want to make huge progress in this Parliament. That means getting the investment framework right, so we are talking to industry and are thinking about what investment looks like so that we can scale it up in the UK. We are trying to create a regime in which local authorities can work in a co-ordinated way to incentivise the roll-out of heat networks in their patch. Critically, we are putting in a regulatory framework, because in the end we need consumers, whether they are commercial or domestic, to have faith and confidence that heat networks will deliver for them. The draft regulations are critical to showing people that a heat network is not just good for heating their home, but good for their pockets.
Graham Stuart
I appreciate the Minister’s enthusiasm. Can she put any kind of number on her expectation for this year and for the coming years until 2030? The year 2050 is a long way off, so I would like to know the trajectory and the Government’s priority now.
Oral Answers to Questions
Graham Stuart Excerpts(8 months ago)
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Michael Shanks
My hon. Friend is absolutely right to say that in the three and a bit months that we have been in government we have moved at pace to deliver the largest renewables auction in history and to make last week’s announcement on carbon capture. We are working through the next stages of the process at pace, and we will have further announcements in the weeks ahead.
Graham Stuart (Beverley and Holderness) (Con)
Does the Minister agree that it would be better to have the right electricity system in 2032 or 2035 than to have the wrong one because of an artificial target, which may be undeliverable by 2030?
Michael Shanks
I could be wrong, but I think the right hon. Gentleman previously said that his own Government’s plans on onshore wind in England were not the right approach to take. I agree with him, which is why we lifted the onshore wind ban. The reality is that whereas the previous Government used to talk the talk on climate action, we are the ones now delivering—and delivering an energy system fit for the future.
Great British Energy Bill
Graham Stuart ExcerptsThursday 5th September 2024
(9 months, 1 week ago)
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The Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero (Ed Miliband)
I beg to move, That the Bill be now read a Second time.
May I congratulate you on your elevation to your new role, Madam Deputy Speaker?
At the general election, the British people voted for change, and they voted for our party’s promise of the first new national, publicly owned energy generation company in our country for more than 75 years: Great British Energy. Today, with this Bill, we deliver. British public ownership is back at the heart of our energy system. To every right hon. and hon. Member behind me, I say that it is thanks to each and every one of their victories in their constituencies that today we can start to create a lasting legacy for the country, which breaks from 14 years of failure—14 years of leaving Britain exposed to fossil fuel markets, which led directly to the worst cost of living crisis and energy bills crisis in generations.
Ed Miliband
Not at the moment. [Interruption.] The right hon. Gentleman needs to calm down a little bit; I know he gets very angry.
We have had 14 years of blind faith in free markets and a refusal to have an industrial policy, which offshored clean energy jobs, and 14 years of a Government who were perfectly happy with state ownership of our energy system, but with one crucial overriding condition: that it would be state ownership by any country except Britain. That is the reality of what we inherited.
We already have widespread state ownership of Britain’s energy assets by other countries—Denmark, Sweden, Norway and France—through their state-owned companies. Indeed, the city of Munich owns more of our offshore wind capacity than the British Government. Following the auction results I announced on Tuesday, the largest two offshore wind projects to win a contract will be built by Ørsted, a Danish state-owned company. I strongly welcome its investment, but the question before the House today—the question at the heart of this Bill—is simple: do we think there should be a British equivalent of state-owned energy generation companies such as Ørsted, Vattenfall, Statkraft and EDF investing in our infrastructure?
We have a simple proposition: if it is right for the Danes, the French, the Norwegians and the Swedes to own British energy assets, it is right for the British people to do so as well. That is why we fought the election on the crucial principle that the British people should have a right to own and benefit from our natural resources. To every Member of the House who is considering their vote on this Bill this afternoon, I urge them to vote for that principle. To those thinking about voting against the Bill, I ask them how they will defend to their constituents the idea that other countries should own our national energy infrastructure, but Britain should not.
Graham Stuart
I am grateful to the right hon. Gentleman for giving way. He is normally a fair man, but what he did not mention was the risible state of renewable energy when we took power in 2010. It accounted for less than 7% of electricity, and we increased the figure to nearly 50%. We are a country that has led the world in this area. It was the Conservatives who transformed our energy system to remove coal from the system. I am sure I am just setting up the Secretary of State, which I am happy to do, but what will state ownership do? Our system is arguably one of the most effective in the whole world at delivering green capacity, and has been the most successful in cutting emissions. What will state ownership do, other than simply put the state and its complicated mechanisms into programmes that need to be speeded up, not slowed down?
Ed Miliband
The right hon. Gentleman surprises me; he is a brilliant set-up man, and he is welcome any time. I will now explain to him what state ownership will do. Here is why it is the right idea for our time. It is the right idea for energy security, because Great British Energy will invest in home-grown, clean energy that we control, and speed up its delivery. It is the right idea for jobs—this is the learning from all those other countries I mentioned—because Great British Energy will partner with the private sector to create jobs and make sure that we build the supply chains and jobs that the British people deserve.
It is the right idea for creating wealth for Britain. This is what I do not understand about the Conservative party, because state-owned companies from other countries are not investing in these assets as a charitable endeavour; they are doing so to generate wealth for their countries—wealth that flows back to their taxpayers. State ownership is the right idea for creating wealth for Britain, because Great British Energy, through its investments, will help generate return for the taxpayer. To answer the right hon. Gentleman directly, it is right for energy security, it is right for jobs, and it is right for creating wealth for our country.
Ed Miliband
My hon. Friend is absolutely right, and it is part of what this Government have done. In less than two months, we have overturned the onshore wind ban, consented large amounts of solar power and, on Tuesday, had the most successful renewables auction in British history.
Ed Miliband
I will not give way to the right hon. Gentleman again. We have heard quite enough from him.
Secondly—I know this is a concern of the Liberal Democrats and of other Members on both sides of the House—Great British Energy will deliver our local power plan, working with local authorities, combined authorities and communities to deliver the biggest expansion of support for community-owned energy in history.
Clean energy is not just about large-scale infrastructure. If we look around the world, so many countries have a lot to teach us. In Denmark, around half of wind capacity is citizen-owned; and in Germany, almost half of solar capacity is citizen-owned. Our local power plan will learn from other countries.
Generating clean power, and embracing it as a way to generate a return for local people, to help tackle fuel poverty, to unleash the dynamism and resources of local communities and to win the consent of local people, thousands of projects across Britain are tapping into that energy and enthusiasm.
Claire Coutinho
I will give way in a second.
The Secretary of State is setting up a new body when our energy sector is not short of state-run bodies. We have Ofgem, the National Energy System Operator, the Climate Change Committee, Great British Nuclear and, of course, the UK Infrastructure Bank, with £22 billion to provide debt, equity and guarantees for infrastructure finance to tackle climate change, set up by the former Prime Minister.
At this point, the taxpayer might well ask why they are coughing up twice for programmes that do the same thing. Here is why. When I read the Bill, tiny as it is, it rang a bell and, lo and behold, it is a carbon copy of the Infrastructure Bank legislation, so why do the same thing again? Well, there are a few important omissions and tweaks. First, while the Infrastructure Bank legislation sets out directions for governance by directors and non-executive directors, the Bill does no such thing. While the Infrastructure Bank legislation appoints an independent person to carry out a review of the effectiveness of the bank in delivering its objectives, the Bill does no such thing.
Lastly, while the Infrastructure Bank legislation gives special powers to direct investments to the Treasury—to independent civil servants—the Bill gives powers to the Secretary of State, who, as far as I am aware, has no investment background and no financial training and whose only period in the private sector, if I have this right, was as a researcher at Channel 4.
Graham Stuart
My right hon. Friend is absolutely right. The Bill sets out huge powers for the Secretary of State—he will be like the slim controller of the energy system, as he tries to interfere. But he has a track record in such cluelessness—the 2030 decarbonisation target. “We need more ambition,” he said. We had therefore hoped that the self-confessed nerd would know how to do it, but we had the letter in August to Fintan Slye of the Electricity System Operator, which set out the fact that the Secretary of State did not have a clue about how to deliver 2030 decarbonisation. The answer from Fintan Slye, if he were not in such an impossible position, would have been short: “It can’t be done. You need to do your homework.”
Claire Coutinho
I thank my right hon. Friend for his intervention. It is always a pleasure to see him in the Chamber making excellent points.
The question that I have is this: why has the Secretary of State set up a duplicate programme with no instructions for governance, independent review, investment plans or consumer savings that he can be judged by? Why should taxpayers’ money fund a similar entity when the only difference that I can discern is that it gives the Secretary of State unchecked power? What is it about the £8 billion of taxpayer money that he can direct without checks or balances that first attracted him to the idea of GB Energy? These are fair and reasonable questions for us as the Opposition to ask, and he must look to improve the governance in this Bill.
Let me turn to the promises that he made. The Prime Minister, the Chancellor, the Secretary of State and at least 50 Labour MPs promised their constituents in the July election that GB Energy would save them £300 a year on their energy bills. They said it on their election literature, on social media and in hustings. They said it because they were told to do so by the Secretary of State, but I listened very closely to his speech today and I did not hear him make a promise that GB Energy will save them £300 on their energy bills.
In a debate just before the summer recess, the Under-Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, the hon. Member for Rutherglen (Michael Shanks), would not repeat the promise either. That is because they all know that it is not true. In fact, one of Labour’s first acts in government has been to take away up to £300 from 10 million pensioners this winter, including two thirds of pensioners in poverty. It takes some nerve for the Labour party to say that it never wanted to do this, because the winter fuel payment was in the manifesto of the Secretary of State’s party when he wrote it in 2010. It was in there when he was leader in 2015, it was in there in 2017 and in 2019, but in 2024 it was omitted. There was no mention at all for the first time in 14 years.
I will give credit to the right hon. Gentleman—something that I do not always do. When he was leader in 2015, he put it in his manifesto that he would take the payment away from the top 5% of pensioners. He will remember that. He had the courtesy of telling the public his plans, but, professional politician that he is, I suggest that he would have clocked that it was not included this time round. He has been in politics for 30 years and would have known what that meant, so I hope that he can confirm today whether he had any conversations with the Prime Minister, the Chancellor or Morgan McSweeney before the manifesto came out. If so, he sent out those Labour candidates—all the people on the Benches behind him—with this false promise of the £300 energy savings when someone clearly knew that they were going to take that amount away from millions of pensioners this winter.
Wera Hobhouse (Bath) (LD)
I congratulate the new hon. Member for Clwyd East (Becky Gittins) on a wonderful whistle-stop tour of her constituency, from wonderful dog walks to rowdy cows in fields and fascinating museums that testify to the history of her constituency. We lived in Liverpool for 10 years, many years ago, and we visited her constituency many times and had wonderful days there. I know how beautiful it is.
Championing renewable energy is in our DNA as Liberal Democrats. Renewables are clean, cheap and popular. We welcome the fact that the new Government are turning around the damaging attitude taken by the Conservative Government and are attempting to make the UK once more a global leader in getting to net zero. We are absolutely on the side of the Government when it comes to the ambitious targets that are being set to get to net zero. We are pleased that through the Bill new steps are being taken to restore British investment in the green economy. The Bill must ensure that renewable energy and home insulation can be rolled out at speed so that we meet our climate targets, bring down energy bills and provide green, well-paid jobs in the future.
The previous Conservative Government’s obsession with oil and gas left us in a mess. The dithering, delaying and even denying of the Tory Government held us back. I have often said that net zero is not like a bus that we can miss and say, “Whoops! We’ll get the next one.” This is a target that we cannot miss, and delaying is just as bad as denying that climate change is happening at all.
Wera Hobhouse
I am happy to give way; the right hon. Gentleman and I have had many discussions on this issue.
Graham Stuart
I wonder whether the hon. Lady knows of a single major economy on the planet that went faster than the previous Conservative Government in cutting emissions.
Wera Hobhouse
I am happy to respond to that, because I do believe that the UK was a global leader. There was cross-party agreement about net zero, but the last Government broke that agreement. That is our problem. Each year and each month matters when it comes to setting the pace to get to net zero. Instead of producing our own renewable energy, we were left reliant on fossil fuels—the energy of the past—and on dictators such as Vladimir Putin. In this unstable geopolitical environment, that was a death sentence and led to the catastrophe of the recent energy crisis.
Families are once again worried about another dramatic energy bill increase—we say that honestly to this Government and want to work with them on this issue—this time of £140 on a typical family’s annual energy bill. Pensioners are also rightly concerned about the Government’s plan to cut the winter fuel allowance for millions of the poorest and most vulnerable people. I raised the matter in business questions earlier and said what is important to us. We of course recognise that through the pension increase next April there will be relief for pensioners, but this winter, when things have become really difficult for pensioners, the Government should not make cuts before we have seen the benefits. We have been making that point and hope to work constructively. It is a political choice and, in our view, it is the wrong one, but it is pretty rich of the Conservative party to complain.
It is clear that if we are to hit our net zero targets, we must drive up investment in renewable energy. The Climate Change Committee’s 2024 progress report found that policy reversals and delays, together with inconsistent messaging, hindered progress just when acceleration was needed. Only around one third of the emission reductions required to meet the 2030 target are covered by our current plans. I challenged the shadow Secretary of State on what the Conservatives’ plans for decarbonising actually are, but we have had no answers. We must, for example, at least triple the operational capacity of offshore wind installations to meet our 2030 targets—and we Liberal Democrats absolutely believe in the 2030 targets.
New first-in-class renewable energy technologies are coming on the scene thick and fast, and the Government must find better mechanisms for funding them than we currently have in place. One example, if I may bring it up, is DRIFT Energy, which is based in my Bath constituency. I hope the Secretary of State is listening. DRIFT uses sailing ships to travel to the deep sea to harvest deep ocean wind and generate green hydrogen. Interesting technology is coming on board, but these new technologies still face many investment problems. The green hydrogen is then delivered to ports around the world—they are essentially fishing ships for energy. Truly novel technology like this does not fit neatly under a Department, so it becomes exceptionally hard to win grants, let alone multimillion-pound grant support. It is important that we are aware of that.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero (Michael Shanks)
May I begin by thanking right hon. and hon. Members who have participated in this extremely wide-ranging debate this afternoon? I particularly pay tribute to all Members across the House who made their maiden speech in this debate. Thankfully, the hon. Member for West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine (Andrew Bowie) has already run through all the constituency names, so I do not need to do that again. However, I do want to highlight specifically some of the really emotional contributions that we heard from hon. Members, particularly my hon. Friends the Members for North East Hertfordshire (Chris Hinchliff) and for Stratford and Bow (Uma Kumaran) and the hon. Member for Eastleigh (Liz Jarvis), who spoke so passionately, as many did, about their pride in their communities and the importance of this moment and this decisive decade in tackling irreversible climate change. There will come a point in this Parliament when we will not have debates that are dominated by maiden speeches, and I will really regret that, because every time I sit here I learn a lot more about the country in which we live. I thank all those Members for sharing their communities with us this afternoon.
This has been a thorough and interesting discussion about the principles behind this Bill and the establishment of Great British Energy. The UK faces immense challenges, from energy insecurity and our over-reliance on volatile fossil fuel markets to the cost of living crisis and climate crisis. This Government are determined to address those challenges with clean energy being a key part of the solution.
Other countries have already seized the opportunity of publicly owned energy generation companies, which has left Britain behind. Unlike previous Governments, this Government are committed to the benefits of public ownership in the UK, and we want UK citizens and taxpayers to own parts of our infrastructure, too.
Great British Energy will drive clean energy deployment, boost energy independence and generate benefits for all parts of the United Kingdom. It will deliver for the British people, creating good jobs, delivering profits and demonstrating international leadership.
Michael Shanks
I will carry on just now, because we have a very short time before we finish.
I wish to address the reasoned amendment tabled in the name of the right hon. Member for East Surrey (Claire Coutinho). I shall address many of these points in more detail, but, in short, Great British Energy will produce clean energy, protect bill payers in the long term, and invest in projects that expect a return on investments, generating revenue and delivering for the people of this country in the process. We will manage the transition in the North sea in a way that is prosperous and just and enables our offshore workers to retrain into the industries of the future in a long-term sustainable way. I urge the House to vote against this so-called reasoned amendment tonight.
I turn to some of the specific points that have been raised. I am sorry that I will not be able to get to all of them, because I have very little time. We have already announced a substantial amount of detail on GB Energy beyond this Bill, including publishing its founding statement, announcing the first major partnership with the Crown Estate, confirming that it will be headquartered in Scotland, and appointing Jürgen Maier as the start-up chair. This Bill is the next stage of Great British Energy’s journey, giving it the statutory footing that is needed to deliver on our ambitions. It is drafted to help establish Great British Energy and sets out the necessary legal framework.
GB Energy will be an operationally independent company, just as Great British Nuclear and the UK Infrastructure Bank are. It will be accountable to Parliament, not run by Ministers as some Members have claimed today. It will be overseen by an experienced board, benefiting from industry-leading expertise and experience right across its remit, bringing the most skilled and experienced individuals to the heart of the decisions that it will make.
GB Energy will not be a trading fund, as suggested by the hon. Member for Angus and Perthshire Glens (Dave Doogan). Instead, as I have already said, it will be an operationally independent energy company that owns, manages and operates clean energy projects. I suppose the confusion arises from the fact that the SNP’s commitment to set up a publicly owned energy company has not come to anything at all. I think it has been seven years since it was announced. Only this week, the Scottish Government drew down even more money from the ScotWind inheritance to plug the gaps in their day-to-day spending.