Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Amanda Solloway and Alex Cunningham

Tuesday 16th January 2024 Commons Chamber

[Alex Cunningham (Stockton North) (Lab)]

12. What steps her Department is taking to help energy-intensive industries to decarbonise.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero (Amanda Solloway)]

As chair of the all-party group on carbon capture, utilisation and storage, the hon. Member will know that the Government have committed £20 billion to support the early development of carbon capture, usage and storage, and up to £500 million for the industrial energy transformation fund to help industry to decarbonise, with phase 3 opening shortly.

[Alex Cunningham]

I welcome the investment in carbon capture—we just need to get on and make something happen there. Teesside is home to some of the most energy-intensive industries in the country, but instead of attracting more of those industries, including primary steel making, we are seeing plants closed down and jobs lost because investors do not see any industrial strategy from the Government. High energy costs mean that it is cheaper to import many of the goods that until now we have made at home. Why are the Government content to see this managed decline, rather than back the kind of strategy that will protect existing industries and drive investment and job creation?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Amanda Solloway and Alex Cunningham

Tuesday 28th November 2023 Commons Chamber

[Amanda Solloway]

As I stated, the alternative fund was an incredible support and provided households with that support. The Government lent in to try to ensure that everyone who was entitled to the funding was able to receive it. Now that the scheme has closed, the money will return to His Majesty’s Treasury.

[Alex Cunningham (Stockton North) (Lab)]

14. What steps her Department is taking to help energy-intensive industries to decarbonise.