My Lords, we have gone over this ground many times. I therefore do not intend to delay the House very much. I just want to pick up on one or two of the Minister’s remarks.
It does not really become the Government to pray in aid time. This Bill left your Lordships’ House well before Christmas last year and it was some weeks into the new year before it was brought to the House of Commons for Second Reading. Any delay in the Bill is entirely it the hands of the Government because of the exceptional delay between the Bill completing its passage through your Lordships’ House and being introduced into the House of Commons. These kinds of arguments at this late stage really do not cut any ice.
The Minister will also be aware that some doubt has been expressed as to how clear the manifesto commitment was. While for some the election result may have been a surprise, what really was a surprise was that no one in the industry interpreted the manifesto pledge as being one which would ensure that the ending of the subsidy for onshore renewables, already due in March 2017, would be accelerated by a year. People I have spoken to throughout the industry say that that came as a great surprise to them. But that is the position we are in. The Government are going to
get their policy, but we are trying to ensure that there is some justice attached to the way in which they get it. That is the whole point of having grace periods, and these are the specific points that are raised in the amendments.
When the noble Lord’s ministerial colleague Andrea Leadsom appeared before the Select Committee on Energy and Climate Change in the other place, my right honourable friend the Member of Parliament for Orkney and Shetland asked her:
“So what is the purpose of the grace period then?”.
The Minister replied:
“As I say, to ensure fairness. To ensure that those who have spent money—significant investment—and achieved everything technically to meet the cut-off date but, through reasons beyond their control, haven’t actually made it, are not penalised for reasons beyond their control”.
That is a very fair submission and definition of what fairness should be in such circumstances. With these amendments, we are trying to ensure that the definition of fairness which the Minister expressed in the other place is given some reality and substance.
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The amendment which we are insisting on would specifically look at those cases where there was a decision by a council committee based on an application to which the committee was minded to consent, where notice had been issued and where there were conditions attached to it. These conditions were known to be deliverable because any other practice would be a waste of everyone’s time. These kind of conditions, which are Section 75 conditions in Scotland and Section 106 conditions in England and Wales, have been in place and sought after or imposed as planning conditions for 15 years. The process has now matured and is well understood. The illustration put to me by people within the industry, which I think I have given before, is that the Government are trying to say, “You’ve passed your exams but we’re not allowing you to graduate”. That is what it feels like to those who find themselves in this position.
I shall not go into the details again of the Twentyshilling Hill wind farm in the south of Scotland—but, clearly, everything had been done to get that development to the stage where the council had indicated that it was minded to consent. There then just had to be to-ing and fro-ing between lawyers to get an agreement but the agreement just fell on the wrong side of 18 June—something for which the lawyers cannot really be held responsible. They had in fact spent a substantial amount of money.
The other amendment in my name, in Motion A3, would try to ensure some fairness between Scotland and England. The difference in the levels at which developers have to apply to local authorities in Scotland and England means that where a local authority makes an objection in Scotland, the matter goes to the Scottish Ministers under Section 36 of the Electricity Act, whereas a similar development in England would trigger a public inquiry. In the particular case I have in mind at Aikengall, on the border between East Lothian and the Scottish Borders, the two councils expressed objections. If they had been local authorities in England, the
matter would have gone to the Secretary of State and a public inquiry would have been held. Even though that inquiry reported after 18 June, the developers would have been able to go ahead in the event of a successful outcome. As it happened, both councils objected, but because in Scotland it had to go to Scottish Ministers without the councils making a determination, that did not count as a determination. Although a similar procedure of a local public hearing was in place, under the law as it stands—or as it is proposed by the Government—they would not be entitled to go forward with their project, should the development consent be granted.
Since we debated this at the first iteration of ping-pong, the developers, Community Windpower, have been in touch with me further. They note that they have worked closely with Wind Towers (Scotland) Ltd—now the Korean-owned CS Wind—to ensure that all the towers for their projects are delivered from the manufacturing plant at Machrihanish, Campbeltown, and, more specifically, that they have entered into an agreement to ensure that Liberty Steel will provide the steel for them. So when the Government are telling us that they are trying to do all they can to help our native steel industry and a company that wants to build these turbines and access a source of British steel, it seems perverse that it might not be able to do so because the Government are taking such a intransigent position.
As I say, what we are seeking is simple justice. I will leave the closing words to the Minister himself, when he was dealing with the amendment moved by my noble friend Lady Featherstone in relation to solar energy.