Oral Answers to Questions
Calum Miller Excerpts(2 weeks, 5 days ago)
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Ed Miliband
GB Energy will create thousands of jobs across the country, including in Aberdeen. Here is why GB Energy really matters: we have chosen to put its headquarters in Aberdeen, as we recognise that Aberdeen is the clean energy capital of our country—not just for oil and gas, which is important, but for the future. SNP Members are chuntering on the Front Bench, but they never did anything to create that future for people in Aberdeen.
Calum Miller (Bicester and Woodstock) (LD)
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero (Michael Shanks)
We are working with Ofgem and the National Energy System Operator to accelerate network infrastructure through reforms to planning, supply chains and other areas, delivering the capacity needed to achieve clean power by 2030 and to drive economic growth.
Calum Miller
In my constituency of Bicester and Woodstock, the local plan anticipates significant new employment sites to create jobs and growth. Tritax Big Box tells me that it wants to put solar panels on 100% of usable roof areas on the buildings that it intends to create. Local planning policies would support that, yet I was shocked to learn that Tritax expects to install solar panels on only 25% of usable roof space. It cannot get a permit to generate electricity or consent to export to the grid. Will the Minister or his officials meet me to discuss how we can turn this into a win-win opportunity for rooftop green solar?
Michael Shanks
That sounds like a fantastic opportunity. Our ambition is to see solar panels on as many rooftops across the country as possible. It is a win-win opportunity, as the hon. Gentleman rightly puts it. He and I have spoken about a number of these issues previously, and I am happy to discuss this one with him. If he could write to me with the specifics, we will certainly look at the matter. In the meantime, we are looking at reforming all those processes to make sure that we can get as much power as possible.
State of Climate and Nature
Calum Miller Excerpts(2 weeks, 6 days ago)
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Ed Miliband
My hon. Friend is absolutely right. As we take this journey, we must ensure that we do everything we can to protect existing industries and workers and give them a smooth transition. We do that by ensuring that we have levers that the Government can use, such as Great British Energy, the national wealth fund and our clean industries bonus, to intervene and create the jobs of the future. To give the example of the North sea, 70,000 jobs have been lost there in less than a decade because it is a declining basin. The answer must be to create the jobs of the future, and that is what the Government are determined to do.
Calum Miller (Bicester and Woodstock) (LD)
The impact of climate change is being felt today in my constituency. At Pegtop farm, there is a race to bring in the harvest after such a dry, hot spring, and yields are expected to be less than half of what they would normally be. On 23 and 24 September last year, we had extensive surface flooding, which flooded many homes. What share of the flood defence budget will deal with surface flooding, rather than river flooding? How would the Secretary of State characterise the relevant responsibilities of national and local government, developers, water companies, insurers and householders?
Ed Miliband
The hon. Member asked a complex question, so I might volunteer my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State to write to him on that, so that we get it right. I know—because he was whispering the answer to me—that he takes this seriously.
Oral Answers to Questions
Calum Miller Excerpts(1 month, 3 weeks ago)
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Michael Shanks
My hon. Friend raises an important point. The UK’s energy grid is very resilient, but we are investing to make sure that remains the case in the decades ahead. Ofgem requires transmission owners and distribution network operators to make sure that there is an efficient, economic and co-ordinated system of electricity transmission in the country—and to make sure that it works—but if he wishes to raise any specific issues, I would be happy to hear from him.
Calum Miller (Bicester and Woodstock) (LD)
Michael Shanks
Yes, and I was grateful for the opportunity to meet the hon. Gentleman recently to discuss exactly those points. We encourage all developers to provide a range of local community benefits, and we are consulting on whether that should go further, but in the meantime we want to see community benefit schemes that are as strong as possible for all energy projects, right across the country.
Oral Answers to Questions
Calum Miller Excerpts(5 months, 4 weeks ago)
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Miatta Fahnbulleh
We are very alive to the issues in rural communities, and we are working to ensure that there are solutions for all types of homes. We had record applications to our boiler upgrade scheme for heat pumps, a large number of which were from rural households. We are very clear as we roll out our plan that there will be a solution for every single household, so that everyone can benefit from homes that are warmer and cheaper to run.
Calum Miller (Bicester and Woodstock) (LD)
This winter, many of my constituents are concerned about energy outages. Last Thursday, the Cooper school and Glory Farm school had to close for the entire day when they lost all electricity supply. Will the Minister meet me to discuss how we can ensure the grid has the capacity to avoid these outages, which are so damaging to homes, businesses and critical public services?
Miatta Fahnbulleh
Yes, we will meet the hon. Gentleman. We are working to ensure that outages are not the norm. This is obviously linked to weather issues that we are having to respond to, but the team has been working to ensure that households are not put in a difficult situation, and when they are, that we are responding as quickly as possible.
Oral Answers to Questions
Calum Miller Excerpts(7 months, 2 weeks ago)
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Ed Miliband
That is an excellent question, Mr Speaker. I will write to the hon. Lady with a good answer.
Calum Miller (Bicester and Woodstock) (LD)
I was pleased to see the Secretary of State saying last week that those who host clean energy infrastructure should benefit from it. When landowners and developers in my constituency are cashing in on building new solar, my constituents in Bicester and Woodstock think that it is only fair that benefits are shared. Will the Secretary of State tell me whether he will follow the model of other Governments in setting a mandatory—
Renewable Energy Projects: Community Benefits
Calum Miller Excerpts(9 months, 2 weeks ago)
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Calum Miller (Bicester and Woodstock) (LD)
It is an honour to serve under your chairship, Dr Huq. I commend my hon. Friend the Member for Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire (Mr MacDonald) for securing this debate.
My constituency of Bicester and Woodstock has had multiple applications for solar farms, but they are dwarfed by the enormous proposal by the Blenheim estate and its development partners for an 840 MW solar plant, the so-called Botley West proposal. We need to make the transition to more renewables in our energy mix. The Liberal Democrats support that transition—we want to see 90% of our energy coming from renewables by 2030—but that high ambition makes steps to increase community benefit from any new scheme essential.
We must bring people with us on this journey by sharing the benefits. As with other aspects of renewable energy policy, the current framework is incomplete and hands too much control to the landowners and developers, often at the cost of local communities. We urgently need an approach to renewables that has a strong presumption in favour of meaningful community engagement and sustained community benefit.
Botley West has not met that standard. That is one of the many reasons why I and many of my constituents object to the current proposal. Originally, the developers offered the community a benefit fund of £50,000, amounting to £59.50 per megawatt of annual capacity. It is derisory. The £5,000 per megawatt of capacity recommended by the community benefits protocol would instead deliver £4.2 million each year to the local community if the scheme goes ahead as currently proposed.
I urge the Government to put in place a framework for new renewables that will place renewables schemes at the heart of community discussions and place our communities at the heart of debates on renewables schemes.