UK Parliament / Open data

Energy Bill

Proceeding contribution from Michael Fallon (Conservative) in the House of Commons on Wednesday, 4 December 2013. It occurred during Debate on bills on Energy Bill.

No, I am afraid I do not agree with the hon. Gentleman, although I was grateful for his support in the Division. We need more home-grown energy of all kinds, and we should not be ideological about it. We need more new nuclear to replace our ageing provision, more renewables—we are already increasing our proportion—and more gas-fired plant, as so much coal plant is coming off the system. We need more generation of all kinds.

Of course, the setting of the fuel poverty target and any changes to it, even if they are not in primary legislation, will be subject to full parliamentary debate. Given the importance of the matter, we have ensured that the provision will be subject to the affirmative resolution procedure in both Houses. I therefore do not think it makes sense to specify the target or a target date ahead of our making the detailed proposals after Royal Assent.

The amendments to Lords amendment 87 also specify issues that a strategy must cover. Our strategy will be comprehensive and cover a range of issues, including health, as we know that there are clear health benefits from action on fuel poverty. Finally, we have already committed to continuing to report on the 10% definition in the future, so I do not think it is necessary to include that in the Bill. I hope that I have reassured the hon.

Member for Derby North and the right hon. Member for Don Valley, and that they will agree not to press their amendments.

The second new topic introduced to the Bill in the other place, by Lords amendments 88 and 96, is a provision enabling the Secretary of State to raise the ceiling for small-scale feed-in tariffs from 5 MW to 10 MW. The issue was raised in this House in Committee and on Report, and the Government have listened and responded by tabling amendments in the other place. We intend to limit the increase to community projects only. For commercial projects larger than 5 MW, we consider that market-based incentives continue to provide the best value for money to consumers. We will consult on the implementation of the change after the Bill has received Royal Assent.

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Finally, amendments 89 and 113 provide the Secretary of State with order-making powers to introduce a requirement for landlords of domestic buildings to install carbon monoxide and/or smoke alarms in their properties. Amendments on that topic were first tabled on Report in this House, by the hon. Member for Huddersfield (Mr Sheerman), and I hope that he and the whole House will welcome that addition to the Bill. The Government are not committing to any regulations at this stage because before doing so we want to consult with the sector and carry out a robust assessment of the costs and benefits. Any regulations made under that power would be subject to affirmative resolution by both Houses. I apologise again for the length of my remarks, but there are a large number of amendments in this group to cover.

About this proceeding contribution

Reference

571 cc973-4 

Session

2013-14

Chamber / Committee

House of Commons chamber
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