Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Desmond Swayne and Claire Perry

Tuesday 8th January 2019 Commons Chamber

[Claire Perry]

My hon. Friend has been a doughty campaigner on this issue and will know that we have contributed almost £20 million to the industrial strategy heat recovery fund, and the low-carbon heating technology innovation fund is also receiving funds of up to £10 million. I entirely agree with my hon. Friend’s principle. I am not convinced that a further consultation is required, but I am always happy to discuss it with her.

[Sir Desmond Swayne (New Forest West) (Con)]

Is it fair to continue to subsidise solar panels by charging higher prices to other customers who could not possibly afford that investment?

[Claire Perry]

No, and that is why the intention to close the feed-in tariff scheme was signalled many years ago: it has cost to date over £5 billion and we have a legacy cost of over £1.5 billion to fund that scheme going forward at a time when the price of solar is tumbling. We know that many companies are bringing forward large-scale solar installations without needing subsidy.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Desmond Swayne and Claire Perry

Tuesday 20th November 2018 Commons Chamber

[Sir Desmond Swayne (New Forest West) (Con)]

How come we have been using exactly the same technology without difficulty, fracking at hundreds of sites, for years for thermal energy?

[Claire Perry]

My right hon. Friend makes a valuable point. It is said that fracking is this new thing, but in fact we have been doing it for many years, including using it to extract oil from sites close to both of our constituencies. It is a perfectly safe technology. We have to be clear, however, that we are doing this in an environmentally sensitive way. Of course nobody wants environmental regulations that they cannot defend to their constituents, but we are going through this calmly and soberly; we have excellent science and so far the process is delivering shale gas from these very exploratory fracks, which is something we should all welcome.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Desmond Swayne and Claire Perry

Tuesday 16th October 2018 Commons Chamber

[Claire Perry]

As always, I commend the hon. Lady and her colleagues for doing such an amazing job, cross-party, in promoting the next iteration of Teesside as the centre of clean economic growth. I know that the Secretary of State has met the company. We are aware of the issues. We will continue to review this, but we will also continue to review the chance to have a low-carbon industrial cluster, which is the way to get the new investment and get the carbon down in the area she is so proud to represent.

[Sir Desmond Swayne (New Forest West) (Con)]

The price comparisons available to the public are not transparent and often unintelligible. Can the system be made easier?

[Claire Perry]

My right hon. Friend is always seeking advice on how he can cut his energy bills. I am delighted to see that, particularly as it is Green GB Week. There are lots of opportunities on the website to see what more he could do. The price comparison websites are getting better. One of the challenges is that they do not always show consumers who are in receipt of a warm home discount whether they might lose that. That point was raised by the hon. Member for Leeds West (Rachel Reeves), who chairs the BEIS Committee, and we are working with it. We want that decision to be as transparent as possible. As somebody who has switched twice, both times using a price comparison website, I can tell my right hon. Friend that it is actually a much simpler process than it used to be.

Green GB Week and Clean Growth

Debate between Desmond Swayne and Claire Perry

Monday 15th October 2018 Commons Chamber

[Sir Desmond Swayne (New Forest West) (Con)]

Aside from cutting the emission of hot air in this Chamber, we can do a number of things individually. Will the Department be issuing advice to nudge us in the right direction?

[Claire Perry]

If my right hon. Friend has a moment to go on to the fantastic Green GB Week website, he will find 10 things that he and local businesses in his constituency can do, ranging from test driving electric vehicles to upgrading heating controls and understanding where his pension is invested. If he wants to signal the importance of this transition, he should make sure that his investments are in a pension plan that is not investing in unsustainable businesses. There are many things he can do and I would love to hear back from him about which ones he does.

[Mr Speaker]

I trust that the right hon. Gentleman will be accessing the said website within a matter of minutes, if not indeed seconds.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Desmond Swayne and Claire Perry

Tuesday 12th June 2018 Commons Chamber

[Claire Perry]

It is right that we look at how we can deliver subsidy-free energy using schemes such as the feed-in tariff that have been wildly successful. I will shortly be launching a call for evidence so that we can come up with a good replacement for the feed-in tariff scheme.

[Sir Desmond Swayne (New Forest West) (Con)]

What was the principal driver in the reduction of the price of new offshore wind?

[Claire Perry]

There were two things. First was the world-leading contract structure that we set up with our auctions; I pay tribute to that very good coalition policy. The second thing was the enormous deployment globally and the reduction in price of the various components. It has been a great British success story.

Vauxhall (Redundancies)

Debate between Desmond Swayne and Claire Perry

Monday 16th October 2017 Commons Chamber

[Claire Perry]

As I have said, I do not think that anyone wants us to re-run the Brexit debate. We need to get on with this and make sure that the outcome—it represents the majority view in the constituencies that the majority of Government and Opposition Members represent, so we must deliver on it—is the best possible result for the workers of Ellesmere Port, the workers that support the industry and workers right across Britain’s industrial and manufacturing base.

[Sir Desmond Swayne (New Forest West) (Con)]

We are exporting automobiles very successfully to the United States against a 10% tariff. How much better would we do with free trade?

[Claire Perry]

My right hon. Friend invites me to comment on the estimates held by Her Majesty’s Treasury, but I can tell him that we are one of the major exporters of automobiles in Europe and around the world, and we need to maintain that. Indeed, we make and export one in five of the electric vehicles driven on the continent, so we are already pivoting towards that new technology. Let us make sure we get more investment, so that we can continue to employ more people in the future.

Clean Growth Strategy

Debate between Desmond Swayne and Claire Perry

Thursday 12th October 2017 Commons Chamber

[Claire Perry]

The right hon. Gentleman and I are both really pleased at what has happened in the renewables sector. He is right to focus on energy efficiency because of course that drives down people’s bills—there is a huge win there. Yes, I can confirm that we are going forward with the legislation. He and I were both heavily involved in the design of the green deal, one of the facilitating mechanisms. Clearly, it did not work out as we would have liked.

We want to consider new ways of financing that transition, which is why we are asking our green finance taskforce to focus particularly on green mortgages and see whether we can bring forward other financing mechanisms. I understand the right hon. Gentleman’s point about zero-carbon homes, but I want to make sure that our regulations are absolutely fit for purpose, both for new homes and any additional works done. He would agree that we cannot do that work unilaterally without full reference to the Hackett review of the Grenfell fire safety issue. We intend to consider those regulations to see what more can be done, but it is right to sequence it in that matter.

[Sir Desmond Swayne (New Forest West) (Con)]

Will my bills go up?

[Claire Perry]

The answer is no. Although we have all invested in some of these progressive energy investments, prices are clearly falling. Only a couple of weeks ago, I opened the first subsidy-free solar farm in the UK. As we have pushed towards this low-carbon future, my right hon. Friend’s bills have likely gone down. He will be using less energy in his home because of the LED light bulbs he has installed and all the new appliances he has bought, which are much more energy efficient.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Desmond Swayne and Claire Perry

Tuesday 12th September 2017 Commons Chamber

[Sir Desmond Swayne (New Forest West) (Con)]

1. What steps he is taking to ensure the accuracy of carbon emission measurements.

[The Minister of State, Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (Claire Perry)]

The UK’s measurement of carbon emissions is considered among the best in the world, with a 97% accuracy rate. Indeed, our inventory of carbon emissions is among the world’s most comprehensive, covering all sectors of the economy. However, we are always looking to improve our accuracy in this area, and that work is guided by the National Inventory Steering Committee, which meets twice a year.

[Sir Desmond Swayne]

Excellent! Are we on track to meet our fourth carbon budget from 2023 to 2027?

[Claire Perry]

I hope that my right hon. Friend will also consider excellent the fact that we overachieved against our first carbon budget to 2012 and that we are on track to over-achieve by 5% and 4% respectively against our second and third carbon budgets. However, I am afraid that he is being his usual mischievous self in asking about the fourth carbon budget, which is something that I shall be talking more about when we launch our clean growth strategy, so he will have to be patient just a little bit longer.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Desmond Swayne and Claire Perry

Tuesday 27th June 2017 Commons Chamber

[Sir Desmond Swayne (New Forest West) (Con)]

The Minister spoke of peer-to-peer exchanges of energy. I have no idea what they are, but given the enthusiasm she has brought to her brief I believe that we all deserve a tutorial. Could that be arranged?

[Claire Perry]

It would be a pleasure to educate my right hon. Friend. Let us think of it as a lot of hot air being generated by one particular point and being shared around many other data points. It is part of our future, Mr Speaker.