Oral Answers to Questions

Lindsay Hoyle Excerpts

Tuesday 13th October 2026 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Can I just remind everybody that their contributions are meant to be through the Chair, not looking at Members, to try to take some confrontation out and to keep the Chamber calm? Thank you.

[Mike Reader (Northampton South) (Lab)]

The Secretary of State is right that gas sets the price for power most of the time. Every wind farm and solar array built in our country weakens that link, but Reform and the Conservatives repeatedly object to developments in Northamptonshire. Does the Secretary of State agree that the route to cheaper bills is to build and invest, not to retreat from green power?

[Miatta Fahnbulleh]

My hon. Friend is completely right. We are clear that the route to getting bills down is through clean power. We are proud that over the past two years we have unlocked £100 billion of investment in clean power. We will do what is required. It is just a shame that the Conservatives have lost the plot.

[Mr Speaker]

I call the Liberal Democrat spokesperson.

[Pippa Heylings (South Cambridgeshire) (LD)]

Households and businesses have been left at the mercy of a broken energy system, and they are paying the price. As we have heard, gas is still setting the price of electricity. Gas is now at a three-year high and is due to go up again in January, when energy use goes up. While other European countries are responding to the energy crisis by accelerating electrification, we in the UK do not have a plan. Does the Secretary of State therefore agree with us that we need a national electrification strategy to bring down bills, to decouple gas from electricity and to make the most of our increasing renewables?

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[Mr Speaker]

Order. The right hon. Member has been here a long time. Please look at the Chair, rather than the person who is answering the question. These are the rules of the House—they are not my rules.

[Miatta Fahnbulleh]

I gently point out to the right hon. Member that less than 1% of the land will be taken up by solar farms, even under our most ambitious assumptions, but let us come back to the conversation that we are having. Energy bills are too high, and we are far too exposed to global fossil fuel markets. We therefore need home-grown energy that we control. Solar is a cheap and effective way in which we can do that. The right hon. Member may not have a plan, or indeed care about having a plan, to get energy bills down, but we on this side of the House are very clear about what we need to do. Renewables is our route to driving bills down, and that is what the public expect of us.

[Mr Speaker]

I call the shadow Minister.

[Sir Ashley Fox (Bridgwater) (Con)]

Britain already has the highest electricity prices in Europe, which makes all our families worse off. The Prime Minister’s decision to end VAT on household electricity bills—for only six months—is a tiny step in the right direction, but the Government need to do much more. Will the Secretary of State reduce household energy bills by £200 a year by adopting the Conservatives’ cheap power plan? Will she extend that VAT cut, axe the carbon tax and scrap renewables obligation contracts, so that all British households are better off?

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[Martin McCluskey]

I would like to praise my hon. Friend for the work he has been doing and for working collaboratively with us to put some gentle pressure on the accreditation bodies to ensure that we see progress. I will be meeting the relevant bodies soon, and we hope to be able to unlock this at pace.

[Mr Speaker]

I call the Liberal Democrat spokesperson.

[Pippa Heylings (South Cambridgeshire) (LD)]

The new norms of extreme weather that we are now seeing, caused by climate change, mean that, as my hon. Friend the Member for Didcot and Wantage (Olly Glover) has said, we have to think about not only warming our homes, but cooling them. Thousands of families are dipping into hard-earned savings to install heat pumps and to cut emissions. In my constituency of South Cambridgeshire, we are 25th in the country for heat pump uptake—I am really proud of that—as a result of heat pump subsidies, so I am really worried by rumours that the Government are considering deep cuts to the warm homes plan. Would the Minister agree with me that failing to electrify at scale keeps us needlessly chained to overseas gas and volatile petrostates, and that to rob energy security to fund defence is a fool’s errand?

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[Blair McDougall]

The hon. Gentleman makes one of the many good arguments for acting at pace to get cleaner energy, which is good for business and household consumers, and saves a considerable amount of money for the public sector. That is exactly why we are investing in, for example, rooftop solar across the public sector. We will certainly work with the Scottish Government on that.

[Mr Speaker]

I call the shadow Secretary of State.

[Andrew Bowie (West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine) (Con)]

Businesses are being crushed by the weight of energy costs in this country, and that is leading to the deindustrialisation of Great Britain, everywhere from the ceramics industry in Stoke to the chemicals industry in Grangemouth. Labour’s policies are making Britain poorer and more vulnerable, and are leading to thousands of job losses. Does the Minister think that is why Gary Smith of the GMB described Government energy policy as “batshit” and the Department as the “ministry for P45s”?

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[Martin McCluskey]

We have guaranteed that the grant will be there until March next year. Decisions for the future of that scheme and the uplift are for the Chancellor to take later at the Budget. That uplift has led to a significant increase in the number of heat pump applications, and applications to the boiler upgrade scheme—there were over 8,000 in July alone—so we can see the success that it is having, and the support that it is providing to off-grid homes.

[Mr Speaker]

I call the shadow Minister.

[Dr Luke Evans (Hinckley and Bosworth) (Con)]

In January this year, the former Energy Secretary stood at the Dispatch Box and with great fanfare announced £15 billion for the warm homes plan, so I have a very simple question: can the Minister provide a guarantee today that every penny of that commitment remains intact? Yes or no?

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[Michael Shanks]

As I have said on a number of occasions, we are considering the evidence that has been submitted on these projects. We have had to pick up a process that was left behind by the previous Government, and we have done that as quickly as possible. We will make decisions in due course. [Interruption.] The hon. Gentleman speaks about common sense, but thousands of his constituents are reliant on jobs in renewables, carbon capture and hydrogen, yet he stands here, time after time, opposing investment in those things. If he is in favour of jobs in his constituency, he should be in favour of all of them.

[Mr Speaker]

Order. I know that the hon. Member for Aberdeen South (Douglas Lumsden) is a new Member, but his behaviour counts, just as everybody else’s does. I call the Chair of the Energy Security and Net Zero Committee.

[Bill Esterson (Sefton Central) (Lab)]

In Canada, Prime Minister Carney has taken a more pragmatic approach to the energy transition than his predecessor, notably by designating the west coast oil pipeline as a project of national interest. In this country, the Prime Minister says that drilling in the North sea is something that he is pragmatic about. Does the Minister agree with continued drilling in the North sea, and does he see us taking a similar approach to Canada, and securing agreement to emission reductions in return for that drilling?

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[Michael Shanks]

It is pragmatic to say that oil and gas will continue to be a critical part of our energy mix for decades to come, and the North sea remains an important part of that. We are not about switching off the taps in the North sea—we said that in our manifesto, and we will deliver on it—but we are about building clean energy in the future. The Green party comes here and pontificates on a lot of these issues, but it opposes the very infrastructure that would get us off fossil fuels. It cannot have it both ways.

[Mr Speaker]

I call the shadow Minister.

[Harriet Cross (Gordon and Buchan) (Con)]

We are in a global energy supply crisis, as oil shipments remain stuck; a fifth of global liquefied natural gas supplies have been disrupted by the war in Iran; and across Europe, gas reserves are at record lows as we head into winter. But there is good news: Jackdaw and Rosebank could be producing oil and gas this winter. The bad news is that we have a Government who are either too scared of their green lobby, or too naive about the supply risks that we face, to act. Now that the Holborn and St Pancras by-election is over, and before we get too close to COP, when will the Government finally take our energy security seriously and permit Jackdaw and Rosebank?

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[Sir Roger Gale (Herne Bay and Sandwich) (Con)]

We do not have an abundance of peatland in east Kent, but we do have acres of wonderful marshland and sites of special scientific interest. On that land—[Interruption.]

[Mr Speaker]

Order. Mr Farron is shaking his head at me. There is some peatland in Kent, so there is a link to the question. I do not need any help, and you shaking your head so violently will not change Sir Roger’s question.

[Sir Roger Gale]

I am most grateful, Mr Speaker. Let me go back to the beginning: we do not have acres of peatland in east Kent, but we do have acres of wonderful marshland and sites of scientific interest. On that marshland, National Grid is proposing to build a 90-foot-high converter station the size of five football pitches, floated on concrete 2 metres deep. The Secretary of State is due to determine the planning application in short order. When she takes that decision, will she give an assurance that she will take into account the irreparable environmental damage that that ill-conceived project will do to the environment?

[Mr Speaker]

It sounds like the marshlands will be pushed on to the peatland.

[Katie White]

Thank you for the clarification, Mr Speaker, and I thank the right hon. Member for his question. Everything we do has an environmental impact, but clearly we want to make sure that we minimise the environmental impact of any infrastructure that we build. I cannot comment on any individual planning application, as the right hon. Member will well know, but I take his wider point on looking to minimise, in all places, the environmental impacts of any of our clean energy infrastructure.

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[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero (Martin McCluskey)]

I pay tribute to my hon. Friend for combining two of my favourite things, energy efficiency and the pub, in one question. I encourage the Wat Tyler to access the UK Business Climate Hub, which provides advice to businesses on how to reduce energy costs. It may also be eligible for the boiler upgrade scheme, which offers a grant of up to £7,500 to replace a fossil fuel boiler with a heat pump or other clean technology.

[Mr Speaker]

I call the shadow Secretary of State.

[Andrew Bowie (West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine) (Con)]

I welcome the Secretary of State and congratulate her on her new post; I look forward to working collaboratively with her on issues on which we agree—I am sure we will find some at some point.

In the last 20 minutes, The Daily Telegraph has reported that, in an act of extreme irony, the former Secretary of State for Energy, the right hon. Member for Doncaster North (Ed Miliband), has signed off on drilling for new oil in the South Atlantic, off the Falkland Islands. Why is drilling for new oil and gas okay in the south Atlantic but not in the North sea?

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[Michael Shanks]

I appreciate the hon. Gentleman’s engagement as we went through that process. As the House will remember, the insolvency was driven by decisions that the directors of the Prax Lindsey oil refinery had made at the time. The investigation into their actions continues. We tried everything we could to find a buyer. I am glad that Phillips 66, next door, has taken over the assets so that we can continue to make use of the site and to do everything we can to support the workers, who do an incredibly important job.

[Mr Speaker]

Final question.

[Brian Leishman (Alloa and Grangemouth) (Lab)]

Thank you, Mr Speaker. £15,000 in 1991 is certainly not £15,000 now, so will the Secretary of State meet with me to discuss amending the outdated schedule 4 to the Coal Mining Subsidence Act 1991 to raise the £15,000 statutory cap on the home loss payment so that my Coalsnaughton constituents can receive fair compensation as they face the demolition of their homes?

[Alicia Kearns]

On a point of order, Mr Speaker. I am sure the Minister did not mean to, but one might say he seemed keen to misrepresent the relationship between the Falkland Islands and the UK Government. The Falkland Islands are independent, but the Foreign Secretary has a responsibility to sign off any such decision on oil drilling, which is not what the Minister said. It was also a surprise that when I directly asked the Secretary of State my question, she chose not to give her support and directly answer the question. How might I get Ministers to ensure that they accurately represent the relationship between the overseas territories and ourselves?

[Mr Speaker]

We cannot continue the debate. I know that the hon. Lady will find many other ways in which she can seek an answer, but we will leave it there for now.