King’s Speech

Baroness Redfern Excerpts

Tuesday 19th May 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Redfern (Con)]

My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the noble Baroness, Lady Freeman—I think I am going to be the last Back-Bench speaker in the debate tonight—to congratulate the noble Lords on their excellent maiden speeches, and to have the privilege to speak to the humble Address in the gap.

The introduction of the energy independence Bill aims to increase home-grown renewable energy to hopefully protect living standards for future years. While the direction of travel has been broadly welcomed across the sector, questions remain around delivery and infrastructure readiness. Unfortunately, grid connection delays continue to be a long-standing challenge for the UK energy sector, with renewable projects, battery storage and major developments often facing lengthy wait times to connect to the electricity network. Urgent support from government is required to build out as pressure mounts, and urgent expansion on grid infrastructure has to be developed at a really fast pace.

All this is set against the backdrop of unreliable imports. The possible opening of Jackdaw and Rosebank could be part of the UK’s energy security and reliability and would help complete the jigsaw as we work towards net zero. Skills are particularly needed where infrastructure is built, not concentrated elsewhere, and we must adapt similar occupations to new technologies, as engineers move from oil and gas into offshore wind. As the clean energy workforce is set to grow rapidly, demand will inevitably concentrate in sectors that already face recruitment pressures. I question what further proactive support is being given to those retraining—particularly, as I said, to workers moving from other industries with a relatively weak base—to ensure that jobs in the clean economy are of a high quality and standard, so that people will want to train and retrain into them.

In ensuring that the UK has a stable and competitive business environment, the UK steel sector is essential, as it is to the UK’s security. It has been severely impacted as a result of unfair trading practices, including market-distorting subsidies. The UK currently has some of the highest electricity costs in Europe, in part due to the social and environmental levies placed on electricity bills. The emphasis must be on reducing our electricity prices. Competitive electricity prices are an important enabler of the steel sector, especially as producers and supply chains transition towards electrified green steel production. High electricity prices hurt, and cut deeply into business competitiveness and reduce business confidence for future investment.

I turn finally to the issue of large solar farms and communities that are increasingly on the front line. As an aside, it is important to note that 58% of grade 1 agricultural land—the most productive and versatile land—is situated in the flood plain and 9% is at the highest risk of coastal flooding. Our food and farming sectors’ contributions to the economy must not be overlooked. The question is just how many acres of good-grade land are still determined at the planning stage, while the alternative sits waiting. Urgent action should first be taken to target large industrial warehousing, car parks and brownfield sites, which would therefore support food security as well.