Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill

Debate between Baroness Ford and Lord Marland

Monday 3rd December 2012 Grand Committee

[Lord Marland]

I am grateful for that landscape of the new bank and the large elements of agreement from the noble Lord in drawing his conclusion. To cut to the quick, this is obviously about how we are going to attract co-investment. In meetings with the noble Lord, Lord Smith—and with the noble Lord, Lord Adonis, who sadly is not with us but we have discussed this—he was very clear that this will not be a problem, as indeed I am because of a number of countries that I visited. There is a huge market out there. We had the Kuwait Investment Authority over last week, which was celebrating being in the UK for 60 years. It readily indicated that it would like to invest alongside us in the future.

On the timetable, I refer to the noble Baroness, Lady Ford, who indicated that she would agree that this is very much a matter of track record. No fund can set up shop and on day one expect to be deluged with investment, even if the board and chief executive are very well recognised.

[Baroness Ford]

There are two concepts here and it is important to get clarity. Track record is important for co-investing. The noble Lord, Lord Teverson, is absolutely right. At the moment, we have a green investment fund. The way to get additional leverage from that fund is by co-investing, and there have been lots of good examples in the past 25 years of different types of bodies doing that in the United Kingdom. However, track record is important for co-investing. However good your track record, unless you have established cash flows to sell in terms of a bond or balance sheet with government underpinning, you will not get borrowing. There are two slightly different concepts.

[Lord Marland]

I could not have put it better myself. In fact, I could not have attempted to put it as well as the noble Baroness did. It is absolutely clear, and it sets a clear mandate. We have already discussed this issue, and it will come up again, but I am confident that there will be co-investment. At this point, I see this as an enabler for co-investment. There are plenty of opportunities for green investment. I therefore invite the noble Lord, Lord Stevenson, to withdraw the amendment.

Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill

Debate between Baroness Ford and Lord Marland

Wednesday 14th November 2012 Lords Chamber

[Lord Marland]

My Lords, I thank all noble Lords for this excellent debate. I am very grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Young of Norwood Green, for his cheerful and genuine support on the Bill. I am also grateful to my noble friends Lord Gardiner of Kimble and Lady Stowell of Beeston who have been extremely supportive throughout, and to our officials who have had to endure a six-and-a-half-hour marathon. There is much to digest, and this is clearly not the point where we go into hand-to-hand combat on some of the key issues. That is for Committee, and I look forward to it.

I have been in business all my life. The Bill redresses some of the imbalances that have developed, particularly in the area of employment, and it comes as no surprise that Members who have had affiliations with the trade union movement feel strongly about these issues, which they take seriously—as indeed do we. I respect their views, but we must remember that workers have rights and, of course, so do the employers. This is what this Bill sets out to do.

The noble Baroness, Lady Ford, said that in her working life she never came across issues of health and safety. I do not think that she has been talking a lot to other business people if that is what she thinks, because to many companies the health and safety issue is becoming really strangling, as are the tribunals, the long process and the time that it takes up.

[Baroness Ford]

Perhaps I may gently say to the noble Lord that I was aware that he was taking a comfort break during most of my speech. I never said any such thing and I suggest that he looks at Hansard to see what I actually said.

Energy: Renewables

Debate between Baroness Ford and Lord Marland

Monday 5th July 2010 Lords Chamber

[Lord Marland]

I am very grateful to noble Lords for fighting over a question for me; it is quite rare in this job. However, I must correct my noble friend; the Green Investment Bank was an initiative set up by our own party and one must not rule out the phenomenal business opportunities that it offers for this country. We must have 2 million heat pumps by 2020. We must have bioenergy, which will create 100,000 jobs at a value of £116 million. Wind alone should create 130,000 jobs at a value of £36 billion. At a time when the country needs investment, these are heartening numbers.

[Baroness Ford]

At a time when the country needs this investment so badly, how does the Minister propose to meet those renewables targets without the benefit of an independent Infrastructure Planning Commission, which this Government are committed to abolishing?

[Lord Marland]

I am very grateful to the noble Baroness for her question. She is quite right; the planning process is fundamental to renewable energies and we have to put great emphasis on it, and I am afraid that we have to accelerate it because it had become stuck in a mire. I am not sure that the IPC is the right method for doing that. We shall put energy into reforming that area. I am grateful to the climate change committee for recommending it.