Caroline Flint
Main Page: Caroline Flint (Labour - Don Valley)
Tom Greatrex
As my right hon. Friend says, they are not mutually exclusive. We need to do both. Some here today might disagree, but not that many.
Caroline Flint
Let me begin by paying tribute to my hon. Friends the Member for Rutherglen and Hamilton West (Tom Greatrex) and for Liverpool, Wavertree (Luciana Berger), who, with just a fraction of the resources and staffing available to Ministers, have done a first-rate job in debating the Bill. They have not only scrutinised it, but improved it.
I also pay tribute to my hon. Friends the Members for Sunderland Central (Julie Elliott) and for Hyndburn (Graham Jones), who have provided invaluable support for those on the Opposition Front Bench; to my hon. Friends the Members for Southampton, Test (Dr Whitehead), for Brent North (Barry Gardiner), for Wansbeck (Ian Lavery) and for Ynys Môn (Albert Owen), who served on the Bill Committee; and to my hon. Friend the Member for Glasgow North West (John Robertson). They have all brought a great deal of expertise and experience to bear.
I thank the Ministers and officers in the Department. There have been some personnel changes on both fronts, but we have managed to get through the process. I thank the Secretary of State for the briefings that he facilitated with officials in his Department, as well as the Clerks and the ever-helpful staff in the Library, who have advised us on some of the finer points of detail and parliamentary procedure.
I made it clear on Second Reading that we would not oppose purely for opposition’s sake, and on that basis we have sought to find areas of agreement with the Government when that has been possible. We have supported the provisions to establish an office for nuclear regulation, as well as those relating to the Government pipeline and storage system and to offshore transmission systems.
As the Secretary of State has just said, Ministers have accepted some of our amendments, including those concerning the transparency of investment contracts and the structure of the counterparty under contracts for difference, and I welcome that. We have not yet managed to persuade them to accept amendments relating to other issues, such as carbon capture and storage, support for community energy and access to the market for independent renewable generators, but we have noted their commitment to considering our proposals, and we hope that colleagues in the other place will return to them.
The Secretary of State referred to the redress framework. We are disappointed by the rejection of amendments that would have ensured that consumers were compensated pound for pound and that compensation was paid in respect of any breach of the rules that came to light, because that has left a massive loophole. The best way of protecting consumers is not to provide a redress framework—much though we need that—but to prevent companies from ripping people off in the first place, and I am afraid that on that count the Bill falls badly short.
The Prime Minister told the House 12 times that he would force the energy companies, by law, to put everyone on the cheapest tariff, but, although the Bill consists of nearly 200 pages, not a single one of them contains legislation to put every customer on the cheapest tariff automatically, which is what the Prime Minister promised. Ultimately, unless the energy market is genuinely reformed through the wholesale side—as we have proposed—there will be nothing to prevent the energy companies from raising all their tariffs in any event.
Whenever I meet investors, the single most important thing that they tell me they want is certainty. They should gain confidence from our support for the substance of the Bill. When it comes to contracts for difference, there are clearly many important details still to be worked out, but, in principle, if CFDs are executed correctly, they should provide investors with long-term certainty, and we will therefore support them.
There are also many important details still to be worked out in regard to the capacity market, but in principle we believe that it could work, and have supported it. We also support the principle of an emissions performance standard, and welcome the commitment to reviewing it in five years’ time. However, as my hon. Friend the Member for Brent North said yesterday, we are concerned about the particular standard that the Government have chosen to adopt, and we hope that the other place will scrutinise it carefully.
That is some of the good news, but I must also be candid about where the Bill fails, and how we would seek to remedy that after the next election if it is not rectified in the other place. The Government’s stated purpose was to reform the electricity market to deliver secure, clean and affordable electricity, but there are no two ways about it: the Bill will fall short of its stated purpose unless it puts Britain’s electricity system on a pathway to decarbonisation, and unless it genuinely reforms the electricity market to make it more transparent, liquid and competitive.
We have had a full debate on decarbonisation this afternoon. I pay tribute to the hon. Member for South Suffolk (Mr Yeo) for tabling his amendment, and for the work of his Select Committee. I also pay tribute to the work of my right hon. Friend the Member for Doncaster North (Edward Miliband), who was the first leader of a main political party to commit himself to decarbonisation. The Bill does not contain a decarbonisation target because the Liberal Democrats, with a few honourable exceptions, did not have the courage to vote for it.
It is clear that the Conservative party has now set its face against decarbonisation. Its choice is to lock Britain into a high-cost, high-carbon electricity supply for decades to come, but there is still a clear majority in this House in support of decarbonisation. The Labour party supports it, and the Scottish National party, Plaid Cymru and the Green party all support it, too, and I thank colleagues from other parties who joined us in the Lobby this afternoon. With a Government majority of just 23, there is no doubt that if the Liberal Democrats—who claim to support this, who have a party policy on it, and who have a Secretary of State who says he supports it—had voted for it, this Bill would have put us on the pathway to decarbonisation.
Let us be clear about what this Bill does and does not do. It does not set a decarbonisation target; it only says the Secretary of State may set one if they so choose. The Government could have supported just changing “may” to “must”, to give an indication of more certainty in this area.
It has been said many times this afternoon that none of the major parties had support for this target in their manifestos. However, the Committee on Climate Change has only made that recommendation since the general election, and we said we would support its recommendations. We must be able to do that. Things change from one general election to another, and we must listen to that advice. The truth is that even if the Secretary of State decides to set a target, 2016 is the earliest date at which it could be set, but it could be set at any later date—2026, 2036, 2046—or not at all. There is also no specification about what the target should be, so the Secretary of State could issue an order for a target that is totally inconsistent with decarbonisation, or do nothing at all, and still have fulfilled the requirements of the Bill. We would put that right.
Caroline Flint
I enjoy many train rides from Yorkshire with the hon. Gentleman, but I will not give way to him as he has not been present all day for this debate. If he gets a chance, he can make his comments later.
Her Majesty’s Opposition are absolutely committed to decarbonisation of the power sector. The reasons for that are simple. First, the biggest driver of soaring energy bills is rising global gas prices. Cleaning up our power supply and investing in energy efficiency would lead to lower, not higher, bills. Secondly, the best way of improving our energy security is to take advantage of the natural energy sources in our own country. This is the windiest country in Europe, and when it comes to marine energy, Britain really can rule the waves, but businesses will only invest, and bring jobs and growth to this country if they see that the Government back decarbonisation. As my hon. Friend the Member for Wansbeck said, we should give confidence to those who wish to invest in carbon capture and storage and put us at the forefront of clean coal. Thirdly, if we cannot decarbonise the power sector, we will not be able to reduce the country’s carbon footprint, and if we cannot do that, we will face a future of chaotic weather, rising sea levels, flooded homes, failing harvests and drought.
If the other place is not able to rectify the omission of a decarbonisation target from this Bill, we will do so in government. Our determination to clean up the power supply is matched by our commitment to reform the energy market and to make it work in the public interest. So, on decarbonisation and fairer bills for consumers, we regret what is missing from this Bill, and make a commitment to put it right.
Investors should draw confidence, however, from the fact that there is broad cross-party support for many of the provisions in the Bill, and, on our part, there is the political will to deliver a lasting framework to bring forward investment in low-carbon electricity generation. On that basis, we will not oppose the Bill on Third Reading, but it is to be regretted that a dirty deal with the Liberal Democrats has once again blocked the path to clean energy and all the benefits it could bring.