My Lords, I tabled the amendment as a result of a lot of communication from the renewables sector about its concerns about raising finance, given the current uncertainties that are going on, not only around the Bill, but a few others that I will mention. The sector says that that is making it difficult to raise finance, which of course means that less electricity will be produced.
The risks and uncertainty are around the strike price and whether and how much of their power these companies can sell. But in addition to that there are other uncertainties such as planning. The planning system has become better in recent years with the legislation that both Governments have taken forward, but it is still uncertain. We still sometimes see ministerial decisions that look a little odd. It takes time and a lot of money, as we all know. But there is also the question of political risk. However, it is not helpful when Ministers and, I am sorry to say, Prince Charles, make statements about not liking windmills or something. This does not apply only to windmills, but these technologies should be developed and commissioned and permissions sought for their planning on their merits, be they offshore or onshore. We have even heard about how successful PV is in Germany today, because the sun is shining.
There is a risk to these new developments. The renewables sector has said to me very strongly that if it could get 25 years duration of support for CFTs, it would encourage companies and their investors to go for a greater volume of the different technologies, not only the ones that are going up already quite successfully but new ones, much more quickly and easily. I beg to move.