Making Britain a Clean Energy Superpower

Debate between Geoffrey Clifton-Brown and Bob Blackman

Thursday 9th November 2023 Commons Chamber

[Bob Blackman]

I am not a clairvoyant, so I cannot predict when that will happen. However, I urge my hon. Friends on the Front Bench to get on with the job and ensure that we deliver that for the people of this country.

It is equally important that we ensure that we are not reliant on hostile regimes from abroad for the supply of our energy. The important point made by, I think, my hon. Friend the Member for Banff and Buchan, was that the new licences for drilling in the North sea that we are talking about are only replacing those going out of commission, so we continue to be in a position whereby we enable our net zero transition to take place. It is also important that, when we face hostile regimes such as those in Russia and Iran, we maintain our domestic supply as appropriate and, as has been said, safeguard 200,000 jobs in the UK as a result.

It is right that we take those sensible decisions to encourage the growth of renewables and utilise them, but, when the wind does not blow and the sun does not shine, we cannot always rely on renewables, so we need a mixed supply. That is my key message for the Government. We do not need legislation for much of what needs to be done; we need good administration, and I can rely on my hon. Friends on the Front Bench to deliver that.

I turn to other measures mentioned in the King’s Speech, the most exciting of which for me were those on smoking and youth vaping. I declare my interest as chairman of the all-party parliamentary group on smoking and health. Ever since I arrived in this place 13 and a half years ago, I have been leading debates on the scourge of smoking and trying to prevent young people from ever starting to smoke. I sponsored the original debate on standardisation of tobacco products packaging and met Ministers on that. I was opposed by the Government at the time, but of course we delivered that from the Back Benches and the Government took it up. Indeed, I have worked with Dr Javed Khan to establish the clear roadmap that we need to make England smoke-free by 2030.

I was delighted to hear the Prime Minister’s speech at party conference—and I looked back and saw that plagiarism had arrived, because much of it was gleaned from speeches I made either in this Chamber or in Westminster Hall. I was delighted to hear him take up those words of wisdom. I have also spoken to Professor Sir Chris Whitty on what we need to do to ensure that smokefree 2030 actually happens. Raising the age of sale will prevent people from becoming addicted to smoking in the first place. Government modelling suggests that we will avoid up to 115,000 cases of stroke, heart disease, lung cancer and other lung diseases—admittedly by 2075, but saving tens of thousands of lives in the process and billions of pounds for the national health service on treating people who smoke.

Once someone smokes, it is likely that they will carry on smoking for the rest of their lives, and find it very hard to quit. The damage they do comes in later life, in their 30s, 40s and 50s—that is when they suffer. Two thirds of the public support the measure. It is not a matter of free choice to smoke once people are addicted. Two in three people who try just one cigarette go on to become daily smokers. Most of them regret ever starting. I do not want any children to take up smoking. It is still the leading cause of preventable death and disease, responsible for a quarter of all cancers and 64,000 deaths a year. No other consumer product kills up to two thirds of its users. Once they start, four in five smokers become addicted before they turn 20. The reality is that we must raise that age rapidly—I would rather see it raised more rapidly, but at least we are making a great start.

Smoking has a direct cost to the public purse of £21 billion a year—more than double the £10 billion raised through revenue. The chief medical officer, Professor Sir Chris Whitty, made the point succinctly:

“The key points about vaping…can be easily summarised. If you smoke, vaping is much safer; if you don’t smoke, don’t vape; marketing vapes to children is utterly unacceptable.”

I welcome the measures to be introduced in the Bill. They cannot come soon enough, particularly for young people.

I move on to the leasehold reform Bill. We have yet to see the detail of the leasehold reform, and I echo the words of the hon. Member for Brent North (Barry Gardiner), my constituency neighbour. It is important that we make it cheaper and easier for leaseholders to extend their lease and take over management of their building. The Bill will definitely ban leaseholds for new houses, but not for new flats in England and Wales. Therefore, although the standard lease extension will increase to 990 years from the 90 years originally allowed, that will not achieve the enfranchisement and the abolition of leasehold that many of us in this House would dearly like to see.

I welcome the measures to be introduced, but we must remember that many young people who buy their first property do so on a leasehold basis. They are often not given proper legal advice about what happens and, as a result, they do not understand the consequences.

[Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown]

I declare my interest as a chartered surveyor. There is a scourge that we need to deal with in the Bill. I have lots of constituents living in homes on housing estates built in the past 10 years that are leasehold and have escalating ground rents. As my hon. Friend said, they did not understand the consequences when they bought those homes. We need to address that problem.

[Bob Blackman]

I agree. The other measure that must be introduced is to stop the scam of property developers building properties, selling the leaseholds and then selling the freehold to finance companies, which rip off the leaseholders without the leaseholders even being told that their leasehold has been sold. I have been campaigning on this issue for some time. It is the policy of some house builders in this country to do that after six months without even notifying the leaseholders. Considering that individuals might not be given the proper advice about the potential consequences during conveyancing, it is absolutely disgraceful. The final thing I will say about the leasehold reform Bill is that we need to extend the measures in the Building Safety Act 2022 to ensure that freeholders and developers are not able to escape their liabilities for building remediation work required for fire safety and beyond.

I declare my interest as the co-chair of the all-party parliamentary group for ending homelessness. Let me be clear: homelessness is not a lifestyle choice. Every case of homelessness and rough sleeping is unique. All those individuals who, unfortunately, are forced into sleeping rough on our streets need help; they need to be sought out and given an opportunity to rebuild their lives. Many may have suffered accidents and are unable to work. Many may have been in a broken relationship that they were unable to sustain, and have nowhere to live.

Under my Homelessness Reduction Act 2017, which I note several Ministers claim to be a Government measure—it was my private Member’s Bill that the Government supported and we put on the statute book—every individual who is threatened with being homeless or is rough sleeping can go to their local authority and seek help. That local authority must give them assistance and provide them with help and advice to get them a place to live. I will put this on the record, as I have done in the media: we must not stigmatise people for being homeless. They must be helped and assisted. I want to see the long-promised abolition of the Vagrancy Act 1824, which makes it illegal to be homeless and to beg aggressively. I agree that we need measures to stop aggressive begging, but people must not be arrested for being homeless—instead, they must be assisted. Our language on these things is vital and has consequences.

Finally, the Holocaust Memorial Bill removes an obstacle that has been in the way of preparing the building. I declare my interest as chair of the all-party parliamentary group on holocaust memorial. We owe it to the survivors, the British people and future generations to ensure that the holocaust can never happen again. I would like to express my thoughts and prayers for the whole Jewish community as the war in Israel rages on, following the horrific attack by the Hamas terror group, causing the largest loss of life in a single day since the holocaust. The Bill is eagerly awaited; obstacles have been put in the way, and it is up to the Government to ensure that we progress it as quickly as possible.