Storm Arwen

Debate between Lord Purvis of Tweed and Baroness Hayman of Ullock

Thursday 2nd December 2021 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)]

The Minister may have heard of a small village in Cumbria called Ullock. In Ullock, we were without power from Friday evening through to Tuesday afternoon, so I have an acute understanding of the impact of Storm Arwen and the extreme weather it brought, which has been so challenging for the district network operators to fix, but it now appears that we were fortunate in that we were off for only four nights. The severity of the storm and the difficulties in restoring electricity connection referred to in the Statement have highlighted a number of serious concerns that the Government need to address.

First, will the Minister tell us what consideration the Government have given specifically to the impact on rural communities that are not on the gas grid and not as accessible in poor weather? Without gas, communities rely much more heavily on electricity for heating, hot water and cooking a hot meal, and it has been really cold. The Government and power companies were warned about the storm, so why was more attention not paid and more preparations made to provide the support that the rural and more isolated communities would need?

Where I live, there are elderly residents in their 90s, who are not classified as clinically vulnerable, so they had no extra support, apart from neighbours—who were in the same position, with no heat, no light, no hot water and no hot food. Does the Minister agree that the very old should not be left in this position for days on end?

This brings me to my concerns, personally experienced, about the very poor quality of much communication. In the 21st century, we should surely be able to provide timely and accurate information to residents. Electricity North West told me that I was experiencing a “fault journey”. Unfortunately, I had no idea when or where that journey was likely to end. While I still had charge in my phone, I could go to the website to read the out-of-date and inaccurate information, which told me on a number of occasions that there was no fault in my postcode area. My husband called and was on hold for a long time, as were so many others. When he was finally put through, he was told that there was no information available and to keep up to date through the website. Of course, you cannot do this once your phone is flat.

Moving on to compensation, can the Minister categorically assure the House that there will be a prompt settlement of compensation claims and no attempt by any DNO to try to wriggle out of paying all claims in full? We should also remind ourselves that high levels of compensation are set by Ofgem to encourage DNOs to increase resilience. Will the Government ask Ofgem to increase the requirement on DNOs to improve domestic resilience, because if there is a lesson to be learned from Storm Arwen, it is that our long-term resilience against extreme weather is simply not good enough?

Yesterday, in the other place, Kwasi Kwarteng said that the Government would be

“trying actively to learn lessons”.—[Official Report, Commons, 1/12/21; col. 929.]

He also said:

“We have to be prepared for similarly extreme difficult weather conditions in future and make sure that our system is resilient in that eventuality”.—[Official Report, Commons, 1/12/21; col. 921.]


He is absolutely correct in that. We know that climate change will bring more extreme weather events and, as part of the efforts to tackle climate change, the Government are, quite rightly, phasing out fossil fuels. That includes petrol and diesel, gas and oil. There has been much discussion during the debate on the Statement about generators. What are the plans for generators once petrol and diesel have been phased out?

As we move away from oil and gas heating and towards electrical heating across all homes—because currently that is really the only option—how will the Government make the network resilient? Can the Government categorically say that it can be made completely resilient for the future in its current form? If we cannot rely on the resilience of the grid, we need to look at how we can make our homes resilient. What plans do the Government have for this? For example, what investment is being made into battery storage technologies? What work is being done to look at the future build of new homes to bring in this resilience? We could, for example, fit all new homes with solar panels with a battery storage back-up when that future technology is ready. We need long-term investment to make this happen.

Storm Arwen has been a warning to the Government and to the power companies that, with climate change and the likelihood of more frequent weather events, we cannot continue as we are. With the decarbonisation and electrification of domestic heating, there must be resilience built in for when the supply fails while the grid is being restored. What are the Government doing to get Ofgem to incentivise the DNOs to do this? How is Ofgem working with them to achieve this as quickly as possible? Will the Minister speak to the Government about reporting back to Parliament in six months on progress made in this area?

Finally, if the Minister is not taken by my suggestions on how we could make domestic properties more resilient outside of the grid network, can he inform your Lordships’ House how the Government are investing for the future so that we do not have to revisit the misery faced following Storm Arwen over and again?

[Lord Purvis of Tweed (LD)]

My Lords, I associate myself and these Benches with the points made so eloquently by the noble Baroness, Lady Hayman of Ullock, both now and at Questions earlier. Her frustration is representative of the many people who must declare an interest in this issue. When I came down from the Borders last Monday, I had no power in my house; when I arrived back there on Friday there were eight outages that evening and no power overnight on Saturday. However, I was one of the lucky ones because I had some power on Sunday.

I hope that the disproportionate effect on rural areas will be the key lesson in the post-incident review to which the Government have committed. For those living in Kincardine who still lack reliable power, there should be an equivalent test: how would this place treat it if it were Knightsbridge? We are asking people to do the same: to work from home, provide services and care for people. There should be no difference between a resident in Knightsbridge and a resident in Kincardine in the 21st century, especially during a pandemic when people want to be carers or to work from home.

I noticed in the Statement that the Minister had been in Berwick, so I declare my second interest. It is my hometown and where my mum and dad still live. I know that the Minister knows the north-east extremely well as he is a northerner; actually, he is a north-easterner. It is unsettling when you speak to elderly relatives who are genuinely scared about what is happening and are vulnerable due to what happens afterwards. The lack of support for vulnerable communities in rural areas has been shocking in this regard.

The question will be: who has the primary responsibility? I know that many local authorities and their staff have worked extremely hard over this time; I saw it for myself with the local authority for the Borders, and the farmers and others who cleared roads and supported people. Many people in these communities are also first responders and, during this situation, have been checking on vulnerable residents in local authorities. However, certainly in the Borders, local authorities have been extremely frustrated with the electricity companies due to their lack of communication with customers; this was outlined eloquently before.

I will say one thing to the Minister with regard to the Statement. Some people in the north-east of Scotland have had not only their power supply but their mobile phone masts go down. Many communities have now been passed over to voice through broadband phones, as in my house, but there has been no communication at all. Therefore, the Statement giving an indication that people should dial 105 from their landline or mobile when they have no mobile phone coverage is—how should I say this?—insensitive, to say the least. I do not know how the Minister will do it but one lesson that we must learn is how to have civil contingencies when so much now relies on mobile and electricity networks.

My other question relates to power lines. In a former life, before I was elected in the Borders, I worked for David Steel when he was an MP. I strongly remember the awful length of the power cuts then. I know about the modernisation of the network in the north of England and Scotland.

Do we stress test the local networks? We stress test banks and other institutions, but is there a lack of legislative power for the Government to insist that companies stress test their networks so we know that, when it comes to what could well be more frequent events, the networks have been graded on a stress-test basis? This has given a lot of people a lack of confidence in the network and many of the companies.

The final thing I would say is that we have seen through bitter experience—certainly in the Borders and other areas, and in the north-west of England—that there have been improvements in flood warning systems and the way communities are able to operate. These systems have been put in place so that, when flood alerts are indicated, the public bodies and the private sector are prepared. But it seems as though we are not learning from those experiences with floods when it comes to electricity outages. I would be grateful to know what the post-incident review scope is and, in particular, how customers, consumers and communities themselves can feed into it when they are back to having reliable energy supplies.