Queen’s Speech

Lord Wakeham Excerpts

Monday 16th May 2022 Lords Chamber

[Lord Wakeham (Con)]

My Lords, I am tempted to start by saying that, for the last three or four speeches I have made in the House, I have been preceded by a bishop. I always thought that the people who organise these things thought that perhaps it was a good idea for a bishop to speak before me; however, the noble Baroness made her speech—a lot of it quite controversial —in her normal style, and I enjoyed listening to it.

When I was listening to the Queen’s Speech, given by the Prince of Wales, and some very sensible remarks were made about energy, I remembered that it was over 30 years ago that I privatised the electrical supply industry. That is a very long time ago, and it was interesting for me to think about that—and about what we were thinking about at the time. We have made a success of some of these things, but not of others.

I remember three things which concerned me at the time. First, we had to create an industry that could take its place in a market economy where there was competition, which would be for the benefit of consumers if we could do it. Many people have been in charge of these things over the 30 years since I gave it all up, and I think we have had some success—but there is still more to do.

The second thing we were concerned about—which was relatively new for us at the time—was dealing with the question of renewables, which had not really been part of the scene at all. The policy I tried to bring in was to say that renewables are important, but that they would not really survive unless they could survive in a market economy, producing electricity at a price that consumers would pay. However, in order to get there, it was right and proper that Governments should give assistance to the companies that were developing the renewable industry in order to get them going.

Well, I must say, 30 years on, that the situation is much more complicated and muddled. I get the impression that we are subsidising energy production that there is no need to subsidise, and that other types are not being subsidised which should be. I am delighted to hear that the Minister for Energy in the Commons has indicated that he is having a good look at that, because he too is not satisfied. So I think we are making some progress there, but there are still a lot of problems that must be dealt with and my fundamental view is that, if we are going to subsidise energy, we should subsidise consumers rather than energy producers, because they are the people who probably need it more.

The third area I was involved in at the time was a great plan to privatise the nuclear industry. I am afraid that I had to go to the House of Commons to make a speech to explain that it just could not be done. It was impossible to find any reliable evidence at all about what it would cost, and they had not really started to think about what the decommissioning costs of the nuclear industry were at that time. The plan had to be withdrawn. I have to say, 30 years on, that I do not believe we have made the progress with the nuclear industry that we ought to have made; it really is a disgrace that we still have not got our act together. I am pretty certain that any sensible nuclear industry will avoid building power stations the size of Hinkley Point and Sizewell, and that smaller nuclear energy projects are the way to go.

This is very important because, if one considers the question of climate change—which I will finish with—I do not believe that we can get to net zero by 1950 without a substantial increase in nuclear power. At the moment, something approaching 80% of our energy is still produced by using fossil fuels. There is a great deal to be done, but I think we stand a chance.

I will finish with this: if we succeed, as I think we might, in getting near to net zero by 1950—

[Noble Lords]

2050.

--- Later in debate ---

[Lord Wakeham (Con)]

2050—I am just 100 years out. Even if we get to that, a lot of countries in the world will not. Two things follow from that. The first is that climate change will not be significantly improved. We in this country produce 1% of the world’s emissions, so if we have all the struggles and make the vast expenditures but other countries do not, we will not have achieved anything so far as climate change is concerned.

Secondly, if we have spent an enormous amount of money improving our electricity and getting it all done, our electricity will almost certainly be more expensive than it is in other countries. There is a danger we have to watch, as the heavy industrial users of electricity will build their factories in other countries, not in those that have spent all that money on this. We have the time to deal with this, but we have to be very careful that that is not the end result of what we do.