Energy Bill

The current system provides no incentive, although there is tremendous enthusiasm. At a meeting that I attended in my constituency recently, about 50 people were asked how many of them generated their own heat and electricity. About three hands went up. When they were asked how many would be interested in doing so, every hand went up. There is an enormous appetite for renewable generation. What is holding people back is the lack of the predictable income stream that could be achieved through feed-in tariffs. I am conscious of the time and I know that others wish to speak, so I shall not prolong the debate. However, I want the hon. Member for Nottingham, South to know that we strongly support his new clause and will vote for it if he pushes it to a Division, because we consider it a crucial part of our attempt to enable this aspect of the energy debate to take off. I have tabled a new clause and an amendment. New clause 17 concerns the way in which moneys are looked after. Before the renewables obligation, renewable developments were funded under contract to the Non-Fossil Purchasing Agency. The NFPA continues to operate contracts for existing developments. It auctions the renewables obligation certificates and renewables levy exemption certificates that arise from them, and uses the proceeds to service the contracts. Over time a surplus has built up, as the value of the ROCs and LECs has exceeded the cost of managing the contracts. Clearly that surplus has been contributed by customers for the purpose of renewables development. At present, however, that money simply sits on the Chancellor's balance sheet as yet another stealth tax. That was recognised in the Sustainable Energy Act 2003, which provided for £60 million of the surplus to be spent on renewable energy. That funded the grants for round 1 of offshore wind and it has been fully spent. However, some £180 million is currently sitting unused in the surplus account. It could be used to help to develop renewables, especially from market technologies that are further away from development at present, such as marine. The measure I propose would remove the statutory bar that prevents that money from being spent for the purposes for which consumers paid it. It gives the Government an option, but not a duty, to direct that that money is spent rather than treated as a hidden reserve. I hope the Minister will accept it as a step in the right direction. Amendment No. 65—which we will return to, particularly in another place—addresses the Government's responsibilities to report. The Bill as it stands proposes a reduction in such Government responsibilities in these areas. If it is enacted, the Government will no longer need to report on the following: what is being done on a range of specified energy sources, particularly renewables and microgeneration; measures being taken to ensure that the necessary expertise is available; and what is being done to achieve their energy efficiency aims, as required under the 2003 Act. The Bill also gives scope for changing the reporting periods. In future, reports might cover not a whole year but more than or less than a year. At a time when we are trying to get people more involved in these issues, reducing the reporting requirement on the Government is a step in the wrong direction. We want people to have more information and a better understanding of the issues. The Government are currently trying to take matters in the wrong direction. They have resisted our attempts to get more information on gas storage availability, which is a crucial part of our energy security. They have resisted our attempts to make sure we have a better understanding of the skills base, which is particularly needed in order to build new-build nuclear power stations. They have resisted our attempts to make sure that there is a better understanding of what is being done to tackle fuel poverty. They have resisted measures for consumers to be told how much of their money is going on environmental taxes. We will pursue this matter further. The key issue in this entire Report stage is feed-in tariffs. The hon. Member for Nottingham, South set that out extremely eloquently in introducing his new clause. We will support him today. It is crucial that we push this forward as a way of making microgeneration not just an aspiration in this country but a reality—and one that we can deliver now, so that we do not end up asking in 10 years' time, ““Why didn't we start that earlier?””