Oral Answers to Questions

George Hollingbery Excerpts

Thursday 1st November 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hayes]

Nuclear power is a low-emission technology, and the hon. Lady should welcome it accordingly. She obviously regarded this week’s good news as bad news, but it is good news in terms of the supply chain—as my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State has said—it is good news for the British people, and it is good news for our energy mix and our energy security. I will not be influenced by the preoccupations of bourgeois-left academics; I will be inspired by the will of the people.

[George Hollingbery (Meon Valley) (Con)]

5. What recent assessment he has made of the role of reduction in demand in ensuring the UK’s security of energy supply in the long term.

[The Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change (Mr Edward Davey)]

Following a recommendation from the Select Committee, I will shortly be publishing the Government’s energy security strategy. It will set out the Government’s framework for considering and addressing energy security, including the contribution of reduced demand. Building on that, the strategy will set the long-term direction for increasing energy efficiency, and the electricity demand reduction consultation proposes policies to unlock potential for further electricity efficiency. All three documents will be published later this year.

[George Hollingbery]

Will my right hon. Friend outline the balance of the investment required for the building of new energy generation capacity and for measures to reduce consumption?

[Mr Davey]

The key purpose of electricity market reform is to allow the market to make decisions of that sort. As the hon. Gentleman will know, my Ministers and I are extremely supportive of demand reduction and energy efficiency measures, which have a critical role to play in our energy mix, but we also need to bring in new supply. We face rising electricity demand as we electrify the transport and heating sectors in the years ahead to meet our climate change targets, even if we have the most ambitious energy efficiency policies imaginable, so we need both a supply-side and a demand-side response.