Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Chris Heaton-Harris and Lord Barker of Battle
Gregory Barker
I would go further and praise Nottingham for a whole range of things that it is doing. It has a very progressive agenda and I look forward to visiting Nottingham in the near future to engage on how we can drive that agenda forward. I cannot comment in detail on something that is the responsibility of DCLG—the decent homes programme—but I can say that we are keen for the green deal programme to leverage in all sorts of additional finance where possible. It is about not just energy efficiency but the wider sustainable regeneration of areas such as Nottingham.
Chris Heaton-Harris (Daventry) (Con)
The Department’s own figures suggest that, in 2009, 50,000 people were put into fuel poverty because of the wind element of renewable energy. Will the Secretary of State give up-to-date figures on that?
Feed-in Tariffs
Debate between Chris Heaton-Harris and Lord Barker of Battle(12 years, 10 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text
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Gregory Barker
I am afraid that the hon. Gentleman has misunderstood the statement. We are talking about growing the solar industry, and we expect a steady growth in the number of people who will be employed in the industry until 2015 and beyond.
Chris Heaton-Harris (Daventry) (Con)
As one who approves of local production for local consumption, I welcome the statement, but can my hon. Friend tell us what is the recommendation for the small-scale wind FIT and why any change has been made in it?
Gregory Barker
There is to be a dramatic reduction in the tariff for small-scale wind. We had to take a hard look at it on a value-for-money basis, and as a result we are having to reduce it substantially to 21p. We must make it clear that we can justify paying a significant subsidy to individual technologies only if there is a real chance that they will reach a point at which they are cost-competitive with other mainstream renewables, and indeed fossil fuels, in the relatively near future. Unfortunately, that case has not been made so far in relation to small-scale wind, but I hope that the industry will respond with proposals for innovation and plans to make its technologies more cost-competitive.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Chris Heaton-Harris and Lord Barker of Battle
Gregory Barker
The hon. Lady is absolutely right. She will know that under the final five years of the Labour Government, the number of those in fuel poverty rose from 1.5 million to more than 4 million—an absolutely catastrophic record bequeathed to the coalition. We will turn that around with the most ambitious energy-efficiency programme since the second world war and a far more effective way of delivering help to the fuel poor.
Chris Heaton-Harris (Daventry) (Con)
12. What steps he plans to take in response to the recommendation to his Department from Hayes McKenzie on the adequacy of guidance to developers and local authorities on best practice in the assessment and rating of noise from wind turbines.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Chris Heaton-Harris and Lord Barker of Battle
Gregory Barker
I am not familiar with the details of the scheme that the hon. Gentleman has mentioned, but I will certainly look into this and I would be happy to communicate with my colleagues at the Department for Transport.
Chris Heaton-Harris (Daventry) (Con)
Can the Secretary of State remind the House how much energy was contributed to the grid by onshore and offshore wind last December—one of the coldest periods of time on record?